Adventures And Adversaries: The Digital Chapters
by RockBane
Summary: Arc One is circles around the characters from season one, a few weeks after their adventures in the Digital world.
1. Arc One Chapter 1

**I don't own D&D or Digimon.**

**- = o 0 o = -**

**Tai**

The preteen studies the box for what seems like the twentieth time but still, the game doesn't jog any memories. Tai sighs and glances over to Izzy, who is seems to have paused in his writing on the back of the mat. It seems that if they want to 'specialize' their game world, they had to write it all out on the back of the mat.

Picking up Team Courage character sheets, the team consists of Agumon and himself, Tai stands behind Izzy. _One minute equals a week? Boy does Izzy want to keep us from goofing off..._ He thinks to himself while turning to regard the list of empires that Izzy came up with over the last four days. More then a few of these empires that Izzy came up with seem to be 'ancient'.

"That's rather... detailed." He admits while noting that Shifters seems to hold most of their territory about some mountain range called Black Ice Mountain Range. Tai then notices the book with a bunch of writing on it and Izzy seems to be copying off of.

With a soft grunt, he looks longingly over at the TV but knew that if he were to turn it on, it would only increase his grounding. "Can't believe they ground me for saving the world..."

He looks at his character sheet, his name is next to the player one but the name next to the character name sports the name Cro Runeskin. Agumon's character's name is Donaar Godspeaker, which works as Tai had made his partner's class that of Invoker, although he had been thinking of using paladin for Agumon's class but changed his mind.

He hadn't gotten to see Izzy's own twin character sheets but he just assumed that Izzy had chosen to be a human or half human while having Tentomon to be some kind of insect person like how he decided to make Agumon's character a dragonborn. Moving around, he lies on the couch while allowing the two sheets to rest on the table.

Then the doorbell rings and he quickly gets up, saying, "I'll get it." Upon opening the door, he finds Sora and Mimi standing there. "Hey you guys, come on in, although watch out, Izzy seems to be busy writing stuff on the back of the game mat." The Digidestine of Courage says while moving to allow the pair to enter.

"Just what kind of game requires you to write on the back of the game board?" Sora wonders while Mimi requests to use the washroom. They had switched out their outdoor shoes for indoor slippers.

"According to Izzy, it's a Dungeon and Dragon rip off." He says with a shrug. "He's even had me move most of the furniture away while he increased the mat size. He did write most of this stuff on the back, what's left seems to be about us being divided into teams while starting at a higher level then one." Tai says to Sora.

"Teams?" Sora asks and he smiles a bit while replying, "You know, you create a character for your partner, as in Biyomon. I did one for Agumon, made his character into a Dragonborn Invoker."

"Oh?" Sora seems to hum while he looks around for the character pad, which turns out to be on the table. He gestures to the table and follows behind Sora to get the various books from the kitchen counter.

"Here's some of the books. There seems to be away too much information for such a simple sounding game." He admits and while Sora tears off a sheet, putting her name at the top, he heads for the fridge to grab something for Sora and Mimi to drink.

Tai can hear Mimi and Sora talking as he manages to pull the cans of soda forward to the front of the row for future retrievals of soda. Just as he sets down the two cans does the doorbell rings, when he answers the door, it turns out to be Joe with Matt and TK. He smiles widely at the three while moving out of the way to allow them into the apartment.

"Hey you guys, come on in. We're just waiting for Kari to come home from a friend's place. Which should be shortly." The Digidestine of Courage says.

"Is Mimi and Sora already here? Izzy too?" Joe asks and he nods in confirmation to those two questions. The door closes once they're within the apartment.

"Heya Sora! Mimi!" TK says, sprinting towards the table. "What ya reading?"

It wasn't long before Joe and Matt join in the discussion. TK mentions that he'll work on Patamon's first. Izzy finishes with writing on the back of the mat and helps TK when the younger blond asks him for help.

While that's happening, Tai checks to see if the freshly written mat part is ready to be flipped. It's still rather wet but five minutes after that, it's dry. Then, it surprises him to find out that the front of the mats to display land masses and water. _Huh, I didn't know that Izzy was so artistic. Might as well place the towers and keeps on the map, heh, he even has spots reserved for them, although, those are a lot of places reserved for them..._

Once he puts the various keeps and towers onto the map, the front door opens and Tai heads over to greet his sister, Kari. "Hey Kari, how was your sleep over?" Tai asks his younger sister. Kari smiles brightly while nodding as he takes her bag, taking it to their shared room once the door is closed and locked as their parents won't be home until evening.

As he comes back to double check the map, Tai is rather surprised to find that each of those marked spots possess either a tower or a keep. "Guess Izzy found more keeps and towers." He muses thoughtfully at the site of so many keeps and towers.

He casts about to check on the figurines. They seem fine and he finds a manual detailing the various gods, it's then he remembers that he forgot to put down the name of Agumon's character's god down. "Oops." He murmurs and opens to the table of contents, starting with those gods that Dragonborn favor before looking at those of chaotic god variety.

Slowly the others finish off their own or their partner's character and then move on to doing the other sheet. As they finish up, Tai comes up with a small list of gods to use but none of them seem just right... Remembering the other pads that came with the game, he goings through them and is rather surprised to find one that would allow him to create something new for the world that wasn't written on the back.

After thinking about it, he decides on chaotic neutral as this god's alignment. After thinking about Agumon and checking, rechecking the various domains, he decided that this god will be the god of cooking and figured that the domain of Animal, Plant, Knowledge, and Healing were ones that this god would need as they all compliment each other when it comes to cooking. He was tempted to throw in Time but decided against it as he thought four domains are more then enough.

He puts that this god accepts worshipers and priests from all races. As for power level, Tai puts down Greater deity as the base of moral worshipers can come from any race that likes to cook their food before eating it. The titles were easy to come by with, King of the Kitchen, Defender of the Cupboard, Emperor of Taste, etc. The next part concerning favorite weapon, he is torn between putting own frying pan or a ladle and finally settles on the ladle.

The rest is jotted down as the others were finishing up their sheets. Before forgetting, he's puts some random name down as the god's name and copies it onto Agumon's character sheet. The god with the created god goes under his own sheet. "So... what next? Where do we put these?" Tai asks.

"Well typically, you each get to keep your sheets as a reference for dice rolls." Izzy explains while picking up the figurines. "Now, let me put these on the mat and we can then begin..."

As one of the figurines rests on the mat, they're all engulf within a light, their surrounds spin about and rush pass them. As the surroundings end, with a jerk, Tai feels like he needed to vomit. "Tai? Tai!"

He soon finds himself in the embrace of somebody large and wearing coth robes. "Agumon?" He manages to ask upon noticing that the voice sounds familiar, no unlike Greymon's own but with a hint of something that reminds him of WarGreymon.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the Digital World?" He asks and his partner's reply is, "I was! Then this light appeared and well, here I am."

_I wonder if the other partners are here too..._ Tai wonders only to lose his train of thought upon noticing just how different Agumon is. "Wow... Aren't you living large and in scales..."

Donaar Godspeaker, AKA Agumon, stands an inch over the standard Dragonborn average height. Donaar's scales range from straight red to a orange like copper color with flicks of yellow upon the scales. The 'hair' is braided into three braids.

"And you look... older and sports shorter hair. Nice cloths, although, where are your goggles?" Donaar asks him.

Before Cro could respond, they find themselves under attack by three ugly Hags. Two of them sport spears in one hand with the other carrying a net. The final Hag possess a wand that shoots fire. With a growl, he takes out his pair of short swords, managing to deflect an incoming spear.

) o ( = ) o (

**Kari**

Ren Fernfox, AKA Kari, holds her boar staff up while unit of eight Spriggan Thorns. She had managed to fire off three fireballs before they got within range to deal melee damage. At least five of the incoming enemy sport arrows in their leather armor. Suddenly, she lashes out using her staff, hitting one of the Spriggan on the shoulder.

The ranger's, AKA Gatomon, next arrow enters into one of the attacker's head, killing it instantly. _And now, it's seven against two..._ She thinks while swinging her staff at the next foe.

Her swing hits squarely upon its head, knocking it down. **"_Hanzerih_!"** With saying that, a fireball launches from her out stretched hand and hitting one of them on the hand. She mentally curses this but doesn't have much time as one of the closer ones lunge at her.

Karren the Ranger fires another arrow and it takes out another of the attacking Spriggan. One of the Spriggan manages to get close to cause some effect to explode onto Karren, which seems to do something as the next dodging attempt seems to be rather slugglish. Without meaning to, she finds herself transforming into her hybrid form, which is her appearing as a human size fox standing upright like a person.

She snarls out **"_Hanzerih_!"** With this fireball, she manages to kill one while those around it suffer burns. As enemy lines seem to flinch, she charges forth with her staff and uses it to clubber the Spriggan.

As the Spriggan beat a hasty retreat a few feet away, Ren moves to check on her partner and is relieved to find that the ranger has recovered from that strange attack. Karren says, "Is that really you, Kari?"

"Well, I did pick werefox as my race, so..." She admits. "According to Izzy, I can heal from just about anything as long as none of the items used to attack me is made out of silver." Ren adds, using her free hand to rub the back of her neck with her elbow kind of up in the air.

As Karren finishes studying her changed appearance, the ranger says, "You know, we should probably follow those beings before they bring a larger force to bare against us." Ren, blinks before nodding.

"Although first, we should look these before following after." She says. They quickly loot whatever few copper coins and anything else that looks valuable. They then follow after the survivors, hoping that they hadn't gotten fair.

**To Be Continued!**


	2. Arc One Chapter 2

**I don't own D&D or Digimon.**

**- = o 0 o = -**

**Joe**

The final Oni succumbs to the axe wounds, he finds something to drink while Radko, AKA Gomamon, sighs. "What a greeting... We see each other again and these guys show up, spoiling our reunion!" His partner kicks at one of the fallen Oni.

"I'm still trying to recover from my second visit to an alien world, where once again in a life and death struggle with nothing to really show for it beyond nightmares and my allergies..." He bemoans. "Oh and, ah, let's see, **Cure**." Cael says while holding onto Radko's arm.

"Hey! All those wounds are gone!" Is his partner's response, which gets him up off the ground to check and double check the Goliath's shoulders where some of those arrows had become lodged in Radko's shoulders, which had begun to bleed when his partner yanked them out.

"Not even a scab..." He murmurs in surprise. "So... getting transported here means we become those characters we created... How interesting." Gael muses while rubbing his chin goatee, something he had added as a notable detail.

"Characters? You mean that's why I'm human?" Radko asks him and with a hum, he begins at the beginning while moving to loot the dead Oni, not that they had much on them...

"Well, Tai found this game after we got home from the Digital World. About a few days after it, Izzy asked him about it. Well, Tai being Tai, pretty much allowed Izzy to examine it and only thought of us giving the game a try after Izzy explained it." He explains while putting the coins and other interesting items into his rather large bag of holding that's currently hanging from his belt about his waist.

"Well, Izzy took the game home to read through the books. Then, about six days ago, Tai phones me up and asks if I wanted to try this game called Adventures and Adversaries, a D and D rip off. As I didn't have anything to do today, I said sure. I arrived at the Tai's apartment and filled in two character sheets for Team Reliability." He says with a bit of an ironic smile.

"So... where are we going now?" Radko asks with a rather odd look upon his face, which causes him to pause to regard his partner for a few. "Also, since when have you gotten over your fear of blood?"

"What?" He jerks while standing up. It takes Gael a few seconds to realize that his hands were covered in blood from all those Oni. "But I... And yet..." He murmurs, stroking his goatee, only to pause in that action.

"Ok... there is a good chance that our minds have also been altered slightly to help us to accept this." He says while rubbing his hands through the patch of snow under a minor over hang. "I mean, we had no trouble killing them, we even seem to know how to use our respective weapons and any other skills that I had put down."

Most of the blood came off and he rubs his hands on his gray robe. His belt is a braid that sports two white strands and two gold strands. The medallion of his chosen god, err goddess is Geshtai. Touching the metal disk and rubbing his thumb over the holy image helps him center himself.

"You do have a good point. I mean, I've never used an axe before and yet it felt like an extension of my hand. This place, it feels like home too." His partner admits and looks about the scenery, which wasn't that surprising considering that Goliaths enjoy the mountains.

Muttering a pray to his patron goddess, he moves pass the bodies, heading for the pull of his being. It seems that they were needed and needed to get moving. "Come on, Radko Mountainglare, we have a scepter to find." Gael Icesweat says while walking in the direction of the pull.

) o ( = ) o (

**Mimi**

She ducks under a branch and turns to fire an arrow at the pursuing Lizardfolk but from all the running they've been doing, her aim isn't what it should be and thus hits the trunk next to her target. Taking a deep breath, she quickly darts to where Oakcalm, AKA Palmon, has taken cover in.

"Perhaps we should turn and face them, Harsha... All this running... It's wearing us down!" Oakcalm says, flexing her thinly bark covered fingers. "They just keep coming."

The sound of foot falls draw closer. "But I hate violence! We didn't do anything to hurt them, so why do they hunt us?" The Digidestine of Sincerity exclaim.

Then, as the Lizardfolk draw in close, one gets within range to use their large club and she freezes. 'Mimi' seems to be pushed aside and 'Harsha Heartshield' steps in. The elven maid uses the bow to deflect the incoming club with her primary hand while bringing her long dagger out of its sheath. Moving into the incoming foe's guard, Harsha rams the long dagger as forcefully into the attacker's ribs as possible, much to 'Mimi' horror.

Allowing the bow to drop and moving away from the, hopefully, fatally injured foe. Oakcalm seems startled but soon joins the battle by calling upon the boar spirit 'Mimi' had put in as Oakcalm's spirit patron. Harsha manages to bring out her short sword and uses it on the incoming attacker. The elven fighter manages to slice through this one's scaly covered throat.

The next wave seems to hast at the change in their 'prey' and they murmur in their tongue about what to do, all the while allowing Harsha time to study the opposing side. 'Mimi' is rather overwhelmed by all this violence and though she tries to be for mercy on their behalf, the Harsha persona replies, _"If they had just let us go without chasing after us, then we would not be in this situation."_

'Mimi' couldn't help but know that Harsha had a point, even if she didn't like how bittersweet it was to acknowledge. Then, before they could get organized, the fighter rushes them. Startled, they didn't organize much of a defense with their fellows. With Oakcalm making sure to send a healing spell towards the elf, the Lizardfolk die but not without managing to do damage to her, which gets fixed when Oakcalm casts a healing spell.

"We better hurry and loot what we can, they might have sent runners to their camp." Harsha says softly to her partner. It's only when the bodies have been looted before the persona of Harsha steps back, but not without saying a thing.

Once 'Mimi' is in control, she can't help but do what could only be natural for her. "Are you going to be ok?" Oakcalm asks.

"No, I don't think I'll ever be alright." She says with tears beginning to well up. Then softly, she goes on to say, "When I froze... It was like, somebody just took over. It was disturbing and yet... I really didn't want to die..."

"Oh, Mimi... I don't know what to say..." Palmon says in sympathy while patting her on the back gently. "But we should leave. We can always visit a temple if you want to be confess about killing them."

Taking the skin of water and using it to rinse her mouth, she nods in acknowledgment. Although it's clear that this wasn't going to be like their adventures in the Digital World and it's unlikely they'll encounter their friends either, that map that Izzy drew up featured different landmasses of varying sizes ranging from islands to whole continents.

Remembering to pick up her bow, they leave while she passes the water skin over to her partner in this nightmare. _I hope nothing like that happened to any of them..._

) o ( = ) o (

**Matt**

"Well, that could have gone better." Lawrence 'Wolfclaw' Talbot, typically called Wolfclaw, muses at the eleven beasts that feature a head totally skinless, pretty much just skulls. His partner stands before him in a hybrid form of wolf and man.

"Yea, they were tough, although not a match for you, eh Gabumon?" He says at his fellow member of Team Friendship. "Although, remind me to yell at Tai for finding such a dangerous game."

"Ok, Matt." Wolfclaw agrees while they just look around them. G'roth doesn't know why he's not panicking over TK being not only in this dangerous world but also without him there to protect him.

Using his sabre tip to poke the bare skull of the strange beast. The head moves but it's clear that the monster isn't alive. "I think we should disembowel them. It would make them easier to be rid of." Wolfclaw says and the half-orc nods after thinking about it for a few minutes, something in him telling him that its a good idea.

Slowly, they work their way through the various beasts, rather surprised to find arrow heads ranging from flint heads to barbed steel ones in their bodies. It seems they have encountered other travelers and were capable to walking away from those events with most of their hides intact. They mostly pocketed the arrow heads before Wolfclaw tracking them to the beasts' den.

No signs of young or mothers about, although they did find some of the dens littered with bones. Among those bones were coins, most seems to be copper coins but there are a few silver coins there. They found a few well preserved items among the litter of dead, they pocket those as well.

He glances up at the sky, studying the stars with faint interest before shaking his head. "Guess it doesn't matter which direction we head in, does it? That is, unless you want to rest..." G'roth asks his battle partner.

"Don't know about you, but I'm still too hyped to try and sleep." Wolfclaw admits and he nods in understanding. "Yea, me too, buddy, me too."

As they leave the den, they managed to heal up. Taking a rest, he notices that he feels more energetic. Wolfclaw did seem to enjoy switching through each of his forms, although he did wonder if he can't find a spell to allow his partner's cloths to transform with him. As dawn raises, he finds himself humming a tune.

They stop on top of a hill and finds that not far from their position is a road. "Not sure about you, but I could use a rest now." Wolfclaw admits while yawning and stretching his upper body, causing something to pop and crack.

"Yea, I guess we're close enough. Now lets see, did I purchase tents?" He wonders, moving his large bag of holding onto his lap and reaches into it. With a grunt, he pulls out his tent bundle.

"Check your own bag, you should have one in there too." He says to his team mate. Sure enough, Wolfclaw pulls out one as well. Luckily, it wasn't hard to set up and they each crawled into their tent. Using his bag as a pillow, the bard succumbs to sleep.

) o ( = ) o (

**Izzy**

Silence reigns between them as they sit at a table in a tavern. Orn seems to be tracing some of the marks left behind by previous patrons of this tavern. Licking his lips, he opens his mouth to say something, only, his voice fails him. Looking away from the Genasi sitting across from him, Yair glances over at the stage.

"Well, aren't you two a pair of chatter boxes." He glances over to the surly waitress placing a pair of wooden mugs onto the table. "You know, if you two are looking for work, there's a local lawman rounding up adventures to pursue a criminal into the abandon library. Though, rumor has it, it's filled with ghosts and the undead."

"Thanks, we'll keep that in mind." Yair says, having finally found his voice. The rather shapely woman winks at him, causing his cheeks to redden a bit. He finds Orn looking up at him and sighs.

"I can't help it that you disapproved of my suggesting we give the game a try nor do I know of a way beyond retrieving the item in question to end it." He says to Orn... Tentomon while looking down into his cup. "Most games like it don't do what it did and I just thought they were just trying to add a jolt of realistic danger to any of their games."

Swirling the liquid in the mug, he continues, "To be able to find them, I would need to do research along with gain experience that will increase my reserves. And we can put the word out that we're looking for them, we might get word of them faster too."

"But we would need money." Orn states and he nods. "And we would find more money by exploring these dungeons. But then we would be risking our lives. We can hire people to run through them too, but then they would want their share. Same if we hire ourselves out too."

"So, basically, we can't do much without going around killing other beings." Orn summaries and he stays silent by finally gulping down some of the ale in his mug. This causes him to start coughing while his throat burns from the ale, it didn't escape him that his partner seems to be a tad amused by that.

"Boy is that foul." He manages to say in his defense and with a slight smile, Orn takes a slip out of his mug. Other then a minor sour look, Orn doesn't react to the taste of the ale. _Perhaps I took too big of a sip..._

"Well then, we better be off to find this lawman. It would be a good idea to have allies for our first dungeon drive." Orn says and he merely smiles while nodding.

They clank their mugs and take a sip of the ale. Yair finds it's still foul to taste, although it doesn't burn going down. They wait until they're done before getting up and slap down a few copper coins.

**To Be Continued!**


	3. Arc One Chapter 3

**I don't own D&D or Digimon.**

**- = o 0 o = -**

**TK**

With a soft sigh, he shape-shifts into his elven form, in that one, he typically goes by the name Kero Scaledoom. He's secure that none of the orcs will be spying in on the hut, as far as they know, within the hut is a Lizardfolk and the prisoner. "You alright Asa?"

"Been better." His partner replies and it takes him a few minutes to find a health potion. Taking the quark out of the potion, Asa opens his mouth and he pours the drink into his partner's mouth slowly. "Thanks." Asa Deepfaith says after downing the whole bottle.

"Sounds like they're busy celebrating their... victory." He mutters to Asa while using a dull knife sporting blood on it, likely used to torture Asa earlier in the day. "If we do this right, we might be able to loot a few huts before any of them are the wiser." The raw leather straps finally give, allowing the Aasimar Paladin to rub his wrists.

"Right, but I want to eat something before we do this." Asa states and he nods in agreement. He finds sacks of food from the defeated village, he tosses a few of them in Asa's direction before transferring the contains of the food sacks into his bag of holding that had been hanging from his belt.

Brushing back his silvery blond bangs from his face, Kero takes an apple and bites down on it. Then, hearing somebody about to enter, the cursed Lythari quickly shape-shifts into his Lizardfolk form, he goes by the name Hiss of the Bloodthrist clan.

"Lie down!" The dusty gold, Lizardfolk hisses softly and Asa does so while he picks up a stick. Moving to stand between the food sacks his partner had been eating out of and the door. He presses Asa's face into the ground and the door flap opens to reveal a very drunk orc, the new arrival even sways side to side.

"What are you doing here? I requested time alone with this one!" The cursed Lythari says, being sure to use a hissing tone.

"Wanta eat the half breed's liver! Gotts dibs on it!" The drunken orc says, almost tripping while trying to draw a long dagger out of its sheath.

Raising the staff up from his partner's body, he hisses beastly while taking a few steps forward. Testing the weight of the small staff, he judges the distances as best as he can. As the drunken orc tries to sound a war cry, he throws the staff at the orc.

The staff hits the orc squarely in the chest, unbalancing the ugly manish being. The orc falls onto its butt while he hollers, loudly, "Yous get! Its Hiss's turn with da prisoner!"

He walks up and tosses the drunk out of the hut. "Stays out here! Waits turn!" The few orcs snort and laugh as he retreats back into the hut. Standing before the door, he watches Asa get up off the ground, shoulder's shaking from suppressed laughter and he dips his head slightly while running a scaly hand over his bare, scaled head.

"No wonder they left you alone in here, with me." The bemused Asa says while getting up off the ground. Hiss sighs softly before moving back into the hut, once more allowing himself to transform into his elven form.

"Yea, well, I might as well get the practice in. We might be needing to replay this ploy in the future." Kero says while moving to check some pots along the wall. Some of the pots sport pickling parts of various body parts belonging to non-orcs. The rest seems to be some potions that the orc magic users brewed.

"Ok, ready to move on." Asa says as he finds a few weapon bundles and looted the weapons within, even if they look rather ill cared for. His hand goes for his short dagger and moves to the door, peering through the cracks.

Noting an orc walking pass, Kero quickly exits out of the door and with one hand holding the orc mouth shut, the other uses the dagger to slice the throat just enough that it kills the orc but without blood gushing out. Bringing the body into the hut, he allows it to fall within range of the door.

Blood pumping, Asa and him exchange nods. They exit out of the hut and cautiously moving through the camp. They kill those few orcs they encounter as silently as possible before looting the interior of the unguarded huts. Luck seems to be on their side as all the orcs within the camp weren't really alert.

They killed a number of them and then, as they sneaked out of the camp, they killed at least five sentries, who never looked back, allowing them to kill them silently. They traveled north-east for a bit before following rocky grown south east.

"I think I prefer killing while facing the opponent in actual battle." His partner says and he nods. "I feel rather... dirty."

"Things might have been different if we hadn't gotten separated by those worgs..." Kero admits wistfully. "Then they wouldn't have captured you so easily."

"Well, it doesn't matter now, it's in the past." Asa states in a wary way. "At least we're together again." His partner adds in a lighter tone, which causes him to smiles.

Tension within his shoulders gives a bit. "Hopefully, we'll find another settlement." Kero says. "And they can tell us where we are."

) o ( = ) o (

**Tai**

He glances about the camp that belonged to a band of human raiders. "I think we got everyone." Donaar reports, coming out of the only solid structure that the camp sported.

"Any loot in there?" Cro asks, looking away from the nearest dead enemy, a man sporting parchment yellow teeth. Pushing out the image of the dead raider in favor of something else to think about, striding away from the center campfire and heading towards his partner.

"I think that's what's in the various chests, although, it doesn't look like they were very good bandits." His scaly partner says. "They clearly weren't good cooks either." Donaar adds, clearly in disdain of the raiders.

He snorts a bit, after all, MacArron wasn't even a traditional deity as he's the one to have crafted the god. Not that he has much to complain about as Donaar is such an experienced cook due to possessing a shard of this god's power. _I really should have come up with a better name then MacArron. though.._ The Digidestine of Courage residing in the body of a twenty-eight year old swordmage.

"Well then, at least they won't be around to continue to defile the good name that is MacArron." Cro says seldom tone and his partner nods his head in acknowledgment. "The food will be in good hands from now on."

His partner doesn't reply, only begins to transfer what appears to be a case of beer into his own bag of holding. With a slight shrug, he cracks open a chest and, at a much slower pace, does the same. A few of the items feel magical and it takes him a few minutes to determine what bonuses they grant their wearer. He finds a brass and amber necklace that increases his chances of hitting a foe on right away while a ring that would increase his chances of parrying an incoming weapon goes into the bag as it wouldn't fit over the slightly worn leather gloves on his hands.

A few of the enchanted jewelry are earrings and as he doesn't have the holes in his ears to wear them, they go straight into the bag. _I wonder how much money I can sell most of it for?_ Cro wonders while moving onto the next chest upon emptying the current one of its other contents which are copper and silver coins.

Between the two of them, they completely empty the various chests, crates, and lockboxes. Not much in the latter, mostly just papers that he didn't bother to read, just stuff them into his bag. "That's everything, I think." He says while looking over to Donaar, who nods in agreement.

"So then, does MacArron suggest a direction to travel in or shall we just head back to that road and travel along it?" He asks his fellow team-mate as they walk out of the wooden hut/dinning hall.

"I don't think he cares at this point, so to the road we go. Then, when we get there, I'll make us something to eat for lunch." The Dragonborn Invoker says and his stomach growls in response to the idea of lunch.

Donaar glances over at him with a knowing look while he gently rubs his mid-section. "It's rather odd, to have been here for six days and haven't hear a word from the others." He stays silent as it takes him a few seconds to realize who Donaar is speaking about.

"Well, if they chose to give their character names, then they might be using them instead of their actual ones. It's been a while since you called me Tai and I thought of you as Agumon." He points out with his eyes remaining gazing before him, trying to ignore the dead.

"That's true..." His partner admits after a few seconds of silence hanging between them. "Although, it might be that we might get word from them upon staying in a large city. I mean, there's nothing that keeps them from referring to themselves by their team names."

That seems to ease his internal conflict. "And nothing keeping us from using ours either. Although the trouble might come in the fact we are on different continents..." He says as he still has trouble worrying about the youngest members of the group, namely his sister Kari and TK. Which is rather odd since he knew he should be worrying himself sick over concern for Kari's well being at the very least.

As they make it to the road, they quickly set about going through their usual routine when they stop to eat one of the major meals of the day. He unloads the various dead wood he had been collecting during their trip through the forest. Donaar is busy taking a look through what food he has in the bag of holding.

A simple fire spell lights the fire in the collection of the campfire. Donaar soon puts a frying pan over the fire with what appears to be beef. He's not sure where his partner got the cooking oil but it sizzles on the pan. "Cut those greens, will you?"

He looks and moves to sit before the wooden cutting board. Taking hold of the knife, Cro takes hold of the greens and begins to use the knife to chop the roots and wild onions. As the meat cooks, Donaar takes those greens that he chopped and tosses them onto the frying pan.

He wipes the knife using a rag before wiping down the cutting board using the same rag. As Donaar begins to murmur in prayer, Cro quickly prepares to hand the bowls to the Dragonborn. The flame flares and with that, MacArron blesses their meal and Donaar takes the bowls quickly, filling them up before clapping his hands at least thrice.

Silence reigns between them as they quickly eat their first helping. With that done, they relax and eat the rest at a slower pace. "Guess we continue south along the road." He says midway through his second helping. "We should be getting close to a town or something as the bandits needed some place close to spend their ill-gotten gains."

"You have a point." Donaar agrees while finishing up his own second helping. "I think I'll meditate some while you finish up the rest." His current Dragonborn partner says and he nods, glancing over to the frying pan to find that there is enough for just one more helping.

Once he finishes eating up the remainder, he begins to clean up the site a little, starting with putting out the remainder of the fire. Using some water from the water skin, he dampens that rag and begins to wipe down the rest of the equipment used to make the meal, although he's rather careful of the frying pan as it still has some oil in it.

Once everything has been cleaned, he sits down and sniffs at a wine skin that Donaar forgot to put away. Glancing over to Donaar, he holds the wine skin up to his lips and takes a mouthful. Upon swallowing, he coughs a little and makes a face at the dry after taste. He puts the cap back on and sets the wine skin down while looking for something to help get rid of that aftertaste.

_Maybe it gone bad?_ He thinks but some part of him seems to argue otherwise as he pulls out an apple from his bag and begins to eat it. There isn't much of a rush to leave, even though all his body aches and most of those cuts he received have vanished due to eating the blessed first serving of Donaar's lunch.

Looking up at the sky, he watches the clouds slowly moving through the sky. With a sigh, he pulls out a book and begins to read it. He needs to brush up on what spells he would like to inscribe upon any future weapons. He also needed to review his collection as, much like a wizard, he forgets the spells he casts upon using them.

Cro is startled out of his reading by the sound of voices calling out. Closing his book while keeping a thumb at the page, he studies the approaching group. "MacArron works in mysterious ways." He hears Donaar muse, he glances to find the Invoker standing up and waving towards the group.

With pressed lips, he quickly begins to put stuff into his bag of holding, leaving the diplomacy to his partner. He doesn't put everything about the site into his bag though, he bundles the stuff clearly belonging to the Dragonborn upon the cleaned out frying pan, tucking it under his elbow before approaching the little meeting going on between his partner and the group of merchants.

**To Be Continued!**


	4. Arc One Chapter 4

**I don't own D&D or Digimon.**

**- = o 0 o = -**

**Sora**

She watches Benoi use the feathers of her wings to baffle the pony size spider. She holds the spell and when Benoi does move out of the way to reveal the head. Mentally letting go, the shaft of lightning burns right into the spider's head, killing it instantly. She finally breaths, letting out her breath she almost begins to cough.

"Are you ok?" Benoi asks her and Washi Staffweaver just nods in reply, once more wondering how it was they ended up in Underworld. The memories are still rather hazy...

"I'm just glad we finished that before it managed to bite you." She replies, recalling how sever the previous spider's venom had been on the relatively young Harpy. _I'm just glad I invested into rune magic or else you'd be dead before the first day ended... I wonder how long it'll take me to research transformation magic..._ She think as she moves the magically empowered tip of her staff towards the dead spider, revealing the hallway that is behind the large web.

A single fire spell causes the webbing to burn, allowing them to pass through safely. She makes sure to check Benio over before they continued down into the hallway.

) o ( = ) o (

**Kari**

The satyr leader finishes the tune and she manages to regain herself. The group of three, four if she includes the piper, seem to have finished killing the score of the Spriggan. The little, twisted gnomes didn't stand much of a chance to fight back. She's glad she decided to scout around the forest in her beast form or else the satyrs would have noticed her standing there.

Crawling backwards, Ren shakes herself before trotting away, her dull red/orange coated tail swinging behind her, the white tip drawing the eye as it moves from the left to the right and back again. Putting a few meters between herself and the trio of satyrs, she breaks out into a lop, sniffing and rotating her ears every few minutes to see if she's being followed. Smelling her partner, Ren speeds up and within seconds, is in her human form, complete with a lighter hue orange hair.

Her eyes remain the same yellow that she sported as a fox. "Saw some satyrs kill off a score of Spriggan." She reports while stretching her shoulders and arms. "We should probably avoid them." She adds while sitting down on the log.

"Agreed." Karren says upon getting to her feet. "And while you were away, I managed to do some foraging so we won't have to worry about food, at least, for now."

She nods as she gets up herself. She rummages through her bag to take out her staff and a wand, it was a simple one that fires off force balls that push opponents backwards and depending the their size, a meter back or only a few feet. "Hopefully, we'll find this Spriggan den before dawn tomorrow. I'm getting tired of their ambushes."

Her partner doesn't respond, merely takes the lead. As they travel, back tracking what little evidence that they can find to arrive at the Spriggan camp. With time on her hands, Ren thinks over the events of the pass few days, particularly towards TK's Team as that's the only other team she knew the details of as they had compared their sheets together.

She admits that Kero or Hiss, was a fairly bold direction in which to take a character. _Replacing the ability to turn into a wolf with a Lizardfolk and calling it a God Sent Curse? Clever. Allows for him to have two different identities without anyone being the wiser as it's keyed into the natural transformation ability of that race of elf._

It didn't take long before she wonders just how altered the other Digidestine are at this moment. After all, she appears as though she is in her late teens while Karren appears to be in her late twenties. She didn't know how TK's character will show their age as Elves do age differently then humans. She mostly just assumes that most of the others kept their own characters human and hadn't altered much, likely keeping such things as hair and eye color pretty much the same.

While Ren knew that they were friends, she also can't help but regard them as competition in search of this magical item, this Scepter of Ending. _Which means that we'll need to dungeon crawl... Which will be rather hard as there is only the two of us._ She thinks to herself.

Karren pauses and it takes her a few seconds before she notices and do the same. Then Karren takes out her long sword, which causes her to take hold of her wand. As something springs out of the bushes, she manages to use her wand to push the striped feline back.

Her partner is already moving to slash at the tiger and before the tiger could recover, manages to pierce the tiger's head. Then, as the tiger slowly dies, Karren snaps the large cat's neck. "You alright?"

She nods, swallowing as her heartbeat is rather rapidly. It had been rather shocking that they would be attacked by a tiger of all things while traveling through this forest. Karren sighs and takes out a thin blade, pulling her sword out of the tiger's head.

Soon Karren begins to skin the mighty beast and she sighs while rubbing her lower jaw on her right side, moving towards the back of her neck. As her pulse slows, the thumping in her head goes away. Her skin stops itching as well.

Shaking her head clear, she glances away and leans on another tree not that far from Karren. Keeping her eyes half closed, she listens to the sounds of the forest. As she's about to fully drift off into slumber, Karren says softly, "I'm done."

She jerks a bit and nods as she blinks her eyes rapidly. "Oh, ok. Right, let's go then." She says as she stands up straight, although it seems that Karren found it slightly humoring that she had been about to fall asleep while leaning on the tree.

Karren studies her before nodding. "Alright then." Is all her partner says and once more takes point. She stifles a yawn while following after Karren through this nighttime forest.

) o ( = ) o (

**Joe**

Waving his right hand from his chest to it pointing towards the enemy, this causes shards of tiny ice to launch at the incoming row of throwing knives. The shards of ice clump around the knives, causing them to fall down onto the ground. He struggles to keep from gasping from the very effort of casting that bit of magic as it had been a special gift that Geshtai bestowed upon him during his last meditation.

He takes up a defensive stance, holding the looted short sword in his left hand. His previous weapon, the redwood staff lies upon the battle field, having been chopped in half. The knife throwers look at each other while his hand goes to his robe pocket to pull out some prayer beads that they had found in a previous bandit camp.

He hears Radko's weapons connecting with the weapons of the Shifter berserkers. At least four of the seven lay on the rocky ground, dead from a mixture of Radko's physical might and his divine magic. The two range fighters seem to want to avoid direct battle, which is good for him as he's not very strong with his left hand. It's something he'll have to work on in the coming days, if they managed to survive that long.

With the rangers lacking in ammo, Gael murmurs a pray to heal his partner. He feels his energy flag once more, signaling that his prayer has healed a bit due to his interference. Swallowing, he decides to gamble a bit and taking a deep breath, Gael charges forward to the two range fighters, which startles them and with a snarl, one turns tail and runs away. The other soon follows suit, the fighter engaged with fighting Radko snarls for them to return but this leaves themselves open which Radko takes advantage of.

And thus, the fifth of the group of seven falls. With a sigh, his grip on his short sword vanishes and it falls to the ground while he falls onto his knees. His vision swims a bit as he hyperventilates a bit as his adrenalin vanishes from his system. "I can't believed that worked..." He murmurs out loud, not particularly caring who heard him.

"Well, they didn't call your bluff, so, it worked out in the end, eh?" Radko states in an up beat manner. He didn't mean to but he chuckles at that and finding his strength has returned, he picks up the short sword before standing up.

"Yes, well, it's not like my staff is in any shape to be anything but firewood now..." He muses, glancing down at the two pieces that lay on the ground. It's moments like these that he's glad he didn't put down that his character needed glasses, that he sported perfect vision, well, as perfect as a human's vision could be.

"Well, at least you seem to have found a suitable replacement." Radko says, gently slapping him on his back. Well, as gentle as somebody as tall and muscular Goliath could at least.

"It's not as though we'll not see those two again. They'll likely bring forth a larger party." Gael points out while glancing about for the sheath of the short sword. "If you find a healing potion on them, drink it. I don't think I have enough energy to use a healing spell on you." He adds as he finds it next to the first dead body, picks it up after wrapping the prayer beads about his right wrist.

"Right oh!" Radko says cheerfully. "I'll be sure to allow you to examine any trinkets I find too." His teammate adds and he nods as he threads the sheath onto his belt. With it on his belt, he sheaths his sword and rummages around to pull out something to drink, the water skin filled with water they got from a spring, he slowly takes sips from the chilly water. The coolness seems to help with his aching muscles.

"Feeling better?" Radko asks while laying out the various trinkets that have been looted from the dead Shifters. He nods his head as he reaches out with his free hand to pick up a necklace. With ease, he reads the item, knowing what enchantments have been placed upon the trinket recently. If he wanted to read the whole history of an item, he would need to beseech Geshtai to grant him such an experience.

"Nothing in the way of physical benefits." He says as he puts it down and picks up another one. This one is a figurine of a wolf and shakes his head while dropping it, "Nothing on that one. Just a carving of a wolf."

The rest of the twenty some items weren't worth noting and they divided the items up between them. Feeling his energy reserves are once more filled up, he stands up and glances at Radko. "Feeling hungry?" He asks before adding, "You might as well sit down at eat something, we might not get another chance to do it."

"Maybe... You know, this isn't all bad, you know?" Radko says while sitting down. "At least we're together again. Sure, we're in a life and death race to retrieve some magical item but at least one of us will find it and when they do, this game will end."

Gael snorts softly as he nods, he gets what his partner is saying. "I just wish it wouldn't be because we're in a game where we have to kill people in order to gain experience and riches." He admits with a sigh.

"I never liked those shoot'em up games..." He murmurs under his breath. "They just had to go for realism with those games..." Gael says while looking about the battlefield. "Well, at least we don't have to deal with running through a building, sniping at the enemies while looking for health packs and solving puzzles..."

"Ah... Gael? Isn't that kind of what dungeon crawling is? Well, at least according to these memories of mine... er... Radko's." He winces a bit as he does 'remember' reading such accounts.

"Well, at least we're not in one now." Gael remarks. "A dungeon I mean." He adds before praying over their dead foes. He does this to each of the five dead Shifters. He makes sure to pour a single drop of water on their heads, as it falls, that drop became frozen.

He stands at the center of the dead and sighs softly, while this whole adventure wasn't what he wanted when he arrived at Tai and Kari's apartment, but they'll have to make due. _Well, at least the fate of the world isn't hanging in the balance. If we fail here, it's not like it dooms our worldsd._ Gael thinks and something seems to unwind itself in him, allowing him to smile slightly as he takes a sip from the water skin, being sure to put the twist on it before putting it away.

"Done!" Chimes Radko and he turns to where his friend, partner, and teammate is standing. "Lead on, oh great and mighty priest."

"I'm a cleric and don't you forget it." He says to Radko while resting his left hand on the short sword's hilt. He turns away and begins to trek through the mountain, heading eastward, trusting that Radko will follow suit. For the first time since they arrived here, Joe feels like he can really enjoy the power that his class grants him even though he does and will likely continue to regret the deaths they deal to those they end up fighting.

) o ( = ) o (

**Mimi**

She blushes lightly as Aeldre and Zaspar walk pass, she finds it hard not to as they were just so... handsome. Sure, this elven settlement is under siege by some evil warlock who commands an army of Lizardfolk, the same tribe that they had been dealing with getting here.

"Well, you seems to be rather enchanted by the inhabited, huh?" Oakcalm muses in a slightly teasing tone. She sighs and looks down at her bow that she's been polishing.

"It's rather hard not to notice them, those of the opposite gender I mean. They're so much better looking then anyone I've seen back home..." She admits to her partner while returning to running a oiled cloth about the length of the bow.

They've been here for three days and during the second she spent a lot of time in the local shrine, praying for forgiveness about taking the lives of all those Lizardfolk. While she didn't get any reply from the deity that the shrine is dedicated to, she did feel much more at peace about what they had done to get through the siege line.

_I wonder how the village council plans to break the siege?_ She wonders while checking the bow string to see if it needs to be replace.

**To Be Continued!**


	5. Arc One Chapter 5

**I don't own D&D or Digimon.**

**- = o 0 o = -**

**Matt**

He cases the line back into the stream and waits for the fishing bob to move down into the water. Sitting next to him is Wolfclaw with his own fishing pole and line. It's early morning and they've caught three fish, trout, already. The sun has risen above the tree tops and shadows hug the ground.

"Rather peaceful isn't it?" He hums in agreement while watching his fishing bob. "I wonder if we'll get any information about a dungeon in this region... Or be able to hire ourselves out to a party of adventures."

"Well, we are only a few hours away from an actual city, at least what passes as a city in this world, we shouldn't have a hard time finding the typical hidy-holes to get our information." He answers while some fish fights him as he tries to 'rile' it in.

"Number four." His friend and partner muses while pulling in his own line as they now had enough fish for the both of them. As they gather up what meager belongs they brought with them to the stream, they then head for their make shift camp.

Slowly, they get a fire started and as the fish cooks, they said a quick prayer to the God of Cooking, MacArron, before eating their breakfast. With the fish gone, fire extinguished, and everything they need packed up, he puts the guitar strap over his head, letting it rest on his shoulder. As they walk away from their campsite, he strums the strings of the instrument.

He looted the guitar from a communal lair of Drakes, Rage Drakes at that. The lair possessed up to eleven nests where they found a lot of mail and plate armor. While he had put down his own voice as his musical instrumental, he does know the basics of various other ones. It hadn't been hard for him to craft a flute using a dagger or a set of pan pipes, he had hoped to get his hands on a string instrument, although he thought he'd have to buy one from a merchant.

He continues to pluck random strings as they reach the road and as they walk follow the road, he a song pretty much pops into his head. As his fingers dance, slightly clumsily, upon the guitar, he sings out:

"Kirameite yurameite aoki yume maihanatsu  
>Hana moeyuku<br>The flowers are set alight  
><span>Sparkling, dancing, releasing a blue dream<span>

Seijaku ni ochiru sora futahira no yume hanabi  
>Kanata ni tabidatsu anata mo mieta no? Onaji hikari<br>Two petals from the fireworks of dreams fall quietly in the sky  
><span>Did you, who went away to the other side, see it too? It's the same light<span>

Ga  
>Hanarete mo itsu no hi ka deaeru to shinjiteru<br>Mune saku omoi wo anata ni utau wa koe ga kikoeru?  
><span>And<span>  
><span>Even if the two are apart, I believe that they'll come together again someday<span>  
><span>I'm singing to you, singing of this love that tears my heart apart, can you hear my voice?<span>

Setsuna ni hiraku sore wa hanabi  
><span> It's fireworks, bursting in an instant<span>

Kirameite yurameite aoki yume maihanatsu  
>Sakihokore haruka takaku<br>Mamoriyuku sono omoi hitasura narihibike  
>Hateru made semete tsuyoku<br>Kono hana moe yuku  
><span>Bloom proudly, way up high<span>  
><span>Sparkling, dancing, releasing a blue dream<span>  
><span>The love that protects us rings out in earnest<span>  
><span>At least it will be strong until the end<span>  
><span>The flowers are set alight<span>

Ikutsu mo no koto no ha wo itazura ni chirakashita  
>Tachiyuku mayoi wa shizuka ni kieta no asu ga<br>All kinds of words scattered abot mischievously  
><span>And the confusion that rooted me to the spot quietly disappeared, can you see<span>

Mieteru?  
><span> Tomorrow?<span>

Setsuna ni hiraku sore wa hanabi  
><span> It's fireworks, bursting in an instant<span>

Kirameite yurameite tsukamiyuku yume no hana  
>Atashi no te wo koboreochite<br>Negau mama kono omoi anata ni nariwatare  
>Hateru nara semete tsuyoku<br>Kono hana moe yuku  
><span>I grasp the sparkling, dancing flowers of dreams<span>  
><span>As they rain down into my hands<span>  
><span>Let my love ring out to you like I wish it to<span>  
><span>If it's going to be over, at least let it be strong<span>  
><span>The flowers are set alight<span>

Setsu na ni hiraku sore wa hanabi  
><span> It's fireworks, bursting in an instant<span>

Kirameite yurameite aoki yume maiagare  
>Itsu no hi ka meguriaete<br>Tsunagiyuku kono omoi itoshiki kimi watashi  
>Itsu made mo futari tsuyoku<br>Sparkle, dance, send up a blue dream  
><span>Someday we'll meet<span>  
><span>You, me, and the love that joins us<span>  
><span>We'll be strong together, forever<span>

Kirameite yurameite aoki yume maihanatsu  
>Sakihokore haruka takaku<br>Mamoriyuku sono omoi hitasura narihibike  
>Hateru made semete tsuyoku<br>Kono hana moe yuku  
><span>Bloom proudly, way up high<span>  
><span>Sparkling, dancing, releasing a blue dream<span>  
><span>The love that protects us rings out in earnest<span>  
><span>At least it will be strong until the end<span>  
><span>The flowers are set alight<span>"

"That was great G'roth." This causes him to brush his bangs back, which allows the guitar to hang viva the strap. "And that's your first time playing, isn't it?"

"Yea, well, I know I can do better. I think I need to replace some the cords, they seem to be rather worn." He says to his traveling companion and friend. "Odd thing is, I don't have a clue where that song came from... It just kind of popped into my head and I just knew I had to play it. A rather odd inspiration, isn't it?" He muses as he rests his left hand on the wooden instrument.

"Well, where ever that song came from, it sure was a good one. Particularly with your singing it." Wolfclaw states. "Might be a good idea to write down any songs that strike you so you can play them in the future."

G'roth nods in agreement and it takes a few minutes of rooting about the bag before he pulls out a blank parchment. Using some coal, he struggles to write the lyrics down. Wolfclaw helps and as the settlement comes within sight, he's sung the song at least once more, all the way through.

Putting the parchment into his bag. The gates proved to be unguarded and the center part of the doors smashed. They ready their weapons, it takes him a few minutes to put what he doesn't need for battle into his bag of holding, his teammate does the same. Before his very eyes, he watches as Wolfclaw's form expands, bones twist, fur sprouts until Wolfclaw appears to be a human sporting the typical features of a wolf.

His battle partner moves through the gate, he can practically hear Wolfclaw sniff the air. "It's clear, at the moment at least." And he slinks between the battered doors, careful with his weapon as well.

_It's quiet..._He thinks and as they draw to the center of a plaza, something moves. "We're surrounded, aren't we?" He asks softly and Wolfclaw grunts a yes.

Seemingly freshly killed members of this settlement shuffle forward. The ranks of the undead are mostly made up of humans and gnomes. There are a few odd balls among the wave, a few elves and dwarfs. "Ah... get their heads, at least that's what all those zombie movies promote. Destroy the heads and you destroy the zombie." He says to his teammate.

"Anything else you think would help?" Wolfclaw asks as the undead wave slowly walks towards them, their eyes unblinking with their mouths wide open. He mentally tries to recall anything else that might help.

"Well, fire works fairly well but mostly, you need to destroy the item that is animating them or the one who casted the spell." He explains. "Which means that whoever they are, they're hoping to use these guys to weaken us before making their appearance."

With a sign, he sings and causes a massive tiny fireballs to fly out and destroy at least four of the closest zombies while those about those four receive burns. While amazingly spectacular, it didn't cause much of a dent in the incoming forces. It'll be a while before he would feel up to casting that spell again.

With a snarl, his partner dispatches two of the zombies, their heads falling down off their severed necks. The main bodies collapse upon themselves, causing more then a few of the zombies to trip. Suddenly a few of the zombies surge forward and manage to, some how, break Wolfclaw's left arm.

With a curse, he fires off a fire ball but finds himself pressed by zombies behind him. For the next hour, he found himself unable to do much other then hack away at any zombie limbs that come his way and fire off a fire ball upon a downed zombie, particularly when he hadn't had a chance to destroy their heads. When he had a breather, he would case heal spells upon himself and at random intervals at Wolfclaw.

As the last of his group of zombies are reduced to ashes, he finds himself panting heavily and sweating. He wipes his forehead using the back of his hand as he glances around the plaza. He finds Wolfclaw pretty much going Godzilla upon the fallen zombies, smashing up spines and grinding the bodies into the stone floor of the plaza. None of the undead were moving, likely due to their heads having been destroyed.

"Wolf... they're not moving... You finished them." He says rather softly but his partner seems to finally comes to his senses and stops attacking the dead bodies.

He moves towards Wolfclaw before taking out a water skin and begins to drink it. "That... that was... did I really?" His partner asks and he nods, getting why his teammate is overwhelmed, he had become lost to his own senses as well.

**"You have done well with that wave but can you fend off this one?"**A voice rings out and a figure seemingly appears upon one of the buildings about the plaza's edge. He groans as the next wave shuffles out from behind the buildings. This wave possess larger zombies and undead animals ranging from dogs to horses and cattle.

He knows that those undead gnomes had pretty much turned his leather leggings into rags. They had manage to sneak through his guard simply due to their short size. He could only conclude that most of his injuries occurred viva his legs and can only imagine how short work those undead dogs will have upon bringing him down.

He curses the fact that there wasn't any time to change his current set of cloths either. Gore from the zombies have been splattered upon him. He didn't even want to think about the fact he could have swallowed some of that when he had his mouth open. His feels his stomach tighten by as the new wave of undead come, a fire storm suddenly happens.

A chorus of battle cries causes him to glance over to find mounted riders entering into the fray. An elven arrow sails through the air, only to hit a magical shield about the berobed necromancer. "**Banerid!**" Snarls that elven archer.

_And now we have drama._He thinks while the controller of the zombies merely chuckles. He only listens with half a mind to the exchange of banter between the two, he's a tad busy joining the battle. The zombies died and the cleric rides up before dropping down onto the ground.

"Sit, I'll attend to your legs." The cute brunet says, he does so while more of this party's drama plays out. It's clear that the enraged elf wants to follow right on the heels of the necromancer while the others want to replenish their supplies and burn the dead of this settlement.

"Thank you for the help. I don't know about my partner but I was on my last legs. It didn't help that those undead gnomes managed to do that to my legs before I was aware of it." He says while studying the angry read veins upon his legs. No scars due to his healing spells but he hadn't thought to case a cure on himself.

"It is a good thing one of you is a lycanthrope or you'd both be dead." Murmurs the young woman as she uses an ointment to treat the injuries. "You a swordmage by chance?"

He chuckles softly, he is beginning to feel cool now. "No, I'm a Bard. I'm G'roth, by the way." He says in way of introduction.

"Sayna Dewdrop is mine." Sayna says and he notices Wolfclaw looking bemused concerning what's going on between them. "Well, that should do you. Although, it would be a good idea to bandage them before you change your cloths. Don't want to smug the ointments."

"Hmmm, hey Wolfclaw, you have any bandages? I don't remember seeing any in my bag." He calls out to his teammate.

"Here you go." Wolfclaw says after taking a few minutes to rummage through his own bag. His partner approaches to hand them to him and introduces himself, after taking a human appearance. "My name's Larry Talbot, though most call me Wolfclaw."

Sayna smiles at Wolfclaw, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear as he works on putting the bandages upon his legs. He shakes his head slightly, although he does feel a flash of annoyance of Wolfclaw deciding to occupy Sayna's attention. _It's not like we are an item, we just met!_He reminds himself as he renews his focus upon his legs.

And then another arrives, this one wearing black leather armor. Martin Nimbletouch is a professional rogue and seems to sport a very strong attraction to Sayna, so much so that he gets into a verbal match with Wolfclaw. He notices Sayna sigh softly and guesses that the attraction is one sided.

He excuses himself to change his cloths in privacy as there are a number of woman among this adventure party after all.

**To Be Continued!**


	6. Arc One Chapter 6

**I don't own D&D or Digimon.**

**- = o 0 o = -**

**Izzy**

"That could have gone smoother..." Orn mutters softly as they exited out of the tavern. He couldn't gather up much to say as his jaw ached, but then, getting punch in the jaw does have that effect after all.

_Guess it is rather foolish to think that there would be word of the others so early in the game... It wasn't as though I was trying to offend anyone by inquiring about any local adventuring parties either._He thinks to himself while fingering the dagger on his belt with a scowl.

It's been a month since they arrived here in the game and they hadn't gotten around to entering into the local dungeon due to the fact they were more then a little preoccupied by gathering what information there could be on the others. "Well, I think we better pick up another job or we could look into gathering a few extras to hit the tower located within the Metal Forest." His partner says, as if predicting the next course of thoughts.

"I do believe I'm tired of rounding up farm beasts or running about a forest collecting some in need item. This game is about dungeon crawling and I think we're ready to do it." He says in spite of his aching jaw.

It didn't take long to locate a few down on their luck adventurers; a drunk of a human cleric, a ill-tempered gnome ranger plus bear companion, and two fighters who happen to be brothers who are dwarves. The brothers are always trying to out due each other and are so quarrelsome that they'd sooner get into a fist fight then to fight the enemy. He mentally called the two dwarves, Axe and Fist due to their armor featuring such symbols, the drunken cleric Waste, and the woman gnome as Sniper for more then just her skills with the bow.

The reason why any of them are coming are not all that surprising. Axe and Fist were here due to the number of bills of property damage hanging over their head, the drunk due to needing more drinking money, and the gnome because her previous party ditched her to enter into this dungeon. They almost had a satyr Bard join but some angry husband killed him for sharing his wife's bed.

They didn't bother to wait until dawn the next day, late afternoon, they could be found among the forest. Sniper is leading with her bear ranging back and forth from the sides of the path forged by previous adventure parties. Axe is walking with Orn and Fist is walking in the rear with Waste.

_I wonder why this forest is called the Metal Forest..._He wonders to himself, he keeps his fireball wand well in hand. "Is there a reason why this place is called the Metal Forest? I sure as heck don't see a scrape of metal!" Axe complains.

"It's called the Metal Forest cause of the tribe of Warforged that live here." Waste answers. "Could we freakin' speed this up? I hate being sober." The cleric murmurs.

He just sighs but none of the others, although he's rather glad he memorized a number of water and frost spells. He hopes that they'll be effective again the metal race when they encounter them. He just knew it would happen sooner or later.

_The question is, will we encounter them before we enter into the tower or after..._He can't help but wonder. He swallows, just being out here under the sun causes him to feel even more thirsty. The tower begins to loom over the tree tops as evening arrives.

They stop to eat supper, before they ate the others said prayers to McArron, the God of Cooking, which has to be a created god as he never came across a reference to this god. _Sounds like Mimi got creative... Or maybe Matt._He think to himself as he eats his first helping.

Unsurprisingly, Waste seems to enjoy his portion of ale and Sniper's own as she prefers water. The cow's blood in his cup really hits the spot. Axe and Fist had brought their own rations of drink, but then, they did have their own, homegrown, portable brewery. Waste does try to get some more beer from the pair but they demanded money, money that Waste didn't have as of yet and they wouldn't take credit.

Orn and himself put a stop to any games of chance that Waste tried to tempt the Dwarf brothers in hopes of getting more to drink. Sniper's bear huffs and puffs while eating the berries. The bear's bowl of water has been emptied.

"If you have any other business, I suggest you take care of it now." Orn says, once more taking charge of the group. "We'll camp out in the tower, it'll be relatively safer in there." His partner adds and they repack their stuff, some lagging rather slowly but they do continue down the path, he casts a spell to allow them all to see in the darkness as though it were daylight, it was a rare spell he found hidden in a library.

He keeps his left hand on the hilt of his dagger while his right keeps a tight grip upon the wand. He's not the only one to feel the tension hanging about the group, everyone keeps a hand over their weapons. As they get to see the walls of the tower, they become under attack by four Warforged, each welding a massive, bladed weapon.

The group of Warforged advance quickly on them, though Sniper's bear charges head long into one of enemy. As they recover, the two dwarves move rather quickly to engage while Waste, Sniper, and Orn send off range attacks. He grabs what he needed to send off a frost attack.

Those in close quarters with the Warforged got hit by blunt attacks by the enemy ranks. Not that they didn't do damage on the four Warforged, just didn't seem to do as much as they received. His frost spell did manage to take the fourth out, leaving only three to attack while Orn manages to knock one off its feet.

Axe does get sent flying by one while Fist takes a blow to his head. Waste does manage to get in close to cast a healing spell upon Fist while Axe gets up from his landing. With a bellow, Axe comes charging back to the fray.

He manages to get a clear shot and causes them to slow down. Frost seems to cover the three Warforged. With them slowed down, it turned the table and within the next ten minutes, they downed the four. They each are breathing slightly heavily but Orn and Waste do help up those that had taken the blunt of the damage who are Axe, Fist, and Sniper's bear as Orn had already healed up himself.

They each got a share of whatever it was that the four Warforged had on themselves. Although, both Axe and Fist took their sweet time examining the bodies to be sure they didn't possess anything in the way of certain types of metal that had been used in their construction. Waste had also quickly used his share of the loot to have a empty water skin filled with the brother's ale.

_There's got to be a spell or a curse involving keeping the victim from ever getting drunk from drinking that. If not, I might just begin researching in crafting that spell..._Yair thinks to himself as they find the obvious doorway.

He sighs as they enter into the entrance everyone has used. Glancing over to Orn, he could only wonder what they could find if they had managed to located a rogue. Looking away, he pauses by the doorway and takes out his dagger. It takes a bit but he manages to chisel the symbol of Knowledge into the stone so that any other teams arrive, they'll know they have been here.

He looks at his dagger and shakes his head. Putting the dagger away, he enters into the tower. Reaching in, he brings out the stones he prepared to set up one night magical wards. He spent most of the last two weeks creating them once he learnt the 'art' of them. With their camp warded, he's just glad to get a good night's sleep.

= ( 69 ) =

As they wake, they eat their rations, although Waste proved to be a grouch and got into a verbal fight with Sniper. It came close to coming to blows. Before leaving their camping area, he's sure to read from his spell book, refreshing his one spell to allow them to see in the darkness and to switch out daggers.

The others had used the time to sharpen or change their outfits. Although Waste seems to have finished communing with his god as he crosses the barrier, with him passing through, the barrier falls. The more combat oriented members of the party take up the point with Snipe and Orn taking up the middle and while Waste and him take up the rear.

"This place looks rather picked over." Axe comments as they pass by dead bodies of humans. "We might encounter rats though." The dwarf fighter murmurs as a few rats dart along the edge of the hall.

"At least we don't have ta worry about a necro taking up residence here." Fist remarks and he could only imagine what's waiting for them, particularly after so many parties have visited this place before them. _Rather depressing really..._

They didn't find much opposition, they did get attack by rat swarms like Axe had predicted. They did have a few run ins with beetles as well, but nothing as dangerous as those Warforged they fought the day before.

Each room they searched showed signs of previous parties. Both Orn and himself would check the walls, pulling out discard paper from the cracks. Some were wills while others were farewells. Likely left behind during times when this tower had been much more dangerous. The magic inherit in the tower likely helped to preserve the various papers, not that any of them likely mean much in their search.

They then ascend up. They become under attack by Homunculus from the stairs. Instead of attacking the tiny fake beings, they just exit out onto the second floor. "Well, it seems there is still something to be had here in this dump." Sniper states while flickering a tiny arrow away.

"Well of course, few parties make it pass the fifth floor. Even those that take and hold this tower has never been able to tame the higher levels. The most powerful of the tower's defenses seem centered at the higher levels, leaving most of the lower levels lightly defended, but then, these floors were the areas servants and guests typically had access too." Waste explains, giving them a better understanding of the tower's history.

_While promising, I doubt we're going to be the party that does tame the sixth floor. Likely would need a much larger group with a lot wider skill range._He thinks to himself as they come under attack by a group of ghost animals, mostly rats and beetles.

They did come across the stuff none of the others thought worthwhile to take or were left behind for something better. They continued to encounter ghosts of small animals, some of them they began to encounter use to be companion animals to previous parties. Which added to the challenge as they clearly were powerful beasts in life and it seemed large cats have always been a popular choice.

_Although, who knew the next popular animal would be birds?_He muses as they gather up the coins that are left behind in a chest. It does strike him as odd that none of the previous parties possessed bags of holdings. As he watches the rest of the party, it's clear that bags of holding are rather rare when it comes to adventuring equipment and he wonders why that is, although Yair decides that it's to their advantage as it means there is something left from all of those previous parties.

They break as certain members of the party require some time to get their energy back. He needed to reread his spell book as he used majority of his spells during the waves of attacking ghosts.

) o ( = ) o (

**Sora**

"This isn't looking very good, is it?" She murmurs to Benio as they are frog marched down a hallway by Minotaurs. She tugs at her rope bindings about her arms. Benio is currently slung over the shoulder of one of the Minotaurs.

The Minotaurs had gone to great lengths to capture them alive and she dredges finding out why. It didn't help that she felt very responsible for all of this as it was her fault that she made Biyomon into a Harpy, a very frail being, and then put her as a barbarian where it's likely she would have done better as the priest.

They arrive at an underground arena filled with various beings, all here to watch the pit fights, which she glimpses before the crowd all surge to stand to cheer. Their captors stop before a booth and after a few minutes of speaking with the heavily scared human, Benio is set down and is examined by one of the men.

The conversation picks up its pace until the human sighs and nods. This signals one of the others to pull out a pouch. Some coins are taken out of it before its tossed to the Minotaur who is likely the leader of the group.

A pair of orcs move forward and Benio is taken away, not that she had much of a chance to think about it as she finds herself receiving the same treatment her partner had just a few minutes ago. She trembles with outrage at how she's being treated but none of the hands come close to his mouth so she can't inflict some damage on her soon to be captors.

Once more, a coin purse is brought out and this time, coins are added into the purse. With that, a metal ring is placed about her neck and she feels her connection to her magic become... distant, it's still there just she would need more time to reach into it and channel it. Which is likely the point of the collar.

_Not good, not good at all..._She thinks while she's lead down into a line up of newly purchase people. She refused to think of them or herself as a slave.

"Which group captured ya?" A dwarf woman asks a few slots before her. More then a few of those in the line turn to study her with a mixture of pity and consideration.

"A group of Minotaurs." She explains and a few nod. "I take it we're for the pit?" She asks in turn and though a whip snaps while they're being told no talking, she saw the answer in their eyes. She bends her head and prays for them all, especially for Benio, as she fears that the worst for her partner and friend.

) o ( = ) o (

**Mimi**

The arrow enters into the throat of the incoming enemy, another two join it before the Drakkoth falls about four feet from Harsha's position. Those elves to her right and left also fire off their own arrow, each finding a home in the flesh of the enemy, some of their arrows killing the foe with one shot while others need a few more into them before they'd fall.

They press forward to achieve their objective of rescuing a few children who were stolen out of the village the day before. They regroup with those that prefer close quarter combat. Oakcalm leads them directly to the place where the children are being held captive. They agree that they are getting close as the Drakkoth are considered the elite guards, serving directly under the head of this army.

The rescue party consists of twenty people, Oakcalm and herself are counted in that count and so far, they're moving fairly quickly towards their objective. So far, her otherself hasn't moved to take control but then, she's not really hasting to kill her foes either, which makes her feel rather a mixture of relief and guilt over killing anybody, even if they were the enemy.

Then, suddenly, they are within the camp where the kids were held. They found the bodies of the children hanging upon a tree limb. With their attention on the dead, they are slow to react to the devils that rush out of the tents and underground holes.

For the first time since they entered into this world, she is glad to have something to take out her outrage on. The other within her helps to keep her limbs from trembling as she hacks into the material body of a spine devil using her sword as they had manage to get close to render using a bow next to useless. The devils are tough and have the element of surprise but they each had receive blessing again evil before leaving so they had some mystical protection against the devils.

With the last of the devils gone, they first attended to their wounds, mostly Oakcalm casting healing spells over those who received the most wounds. She just drinks a healing potion before slicing through the ropes holding the bodies up. Once they are down, she takes the noose from their necks, tears flowing down her face.

She can't help but sink down onto her knees next to the bodies. After a while, a hand rests on one of her shoulders. She looks up to find Zaspar standing there, a bandage wrapped about his forehead and his other arm done up in a splint. "We'll wrap them up in some blankets and put them on stretchers to be carried back to the settlement."

She nods, her throat done up tight. Her hands ball up as she turns to look at them. _I will do my best so that this doesn't happen again, not when I could have prevent it. _She vows to herself.

**To Be Continued!**


	7. Arc One Chapter 7

**I don't own D&D or Digimon.**

**- = o 0 o = -**

**TK**

"I won't take anything less then eight gold, thirteen silver, and ninety copper for helmet!" He states to the man standing across the table from him. The looted plate helmet resting upon the table, he had polished it the other day.

"I'm only going as high as seven gold, fifteen silver, and seventy copper! If you won't take it, I'll spend my money else where." The would be buyer says.

He mentally snorts at that threat, currently they're in a make shift settlement and most of those here thought themselves lucky if they had returned at night with wild game or fish. There's pretty much nobody in the settlement who has much in the way of spare equipment that they are willing to part with, not matter the amount of coin, which is rather profitable for Asa and himself as they were looking to sell what they have collected from raiding various Orc war parties.

"Alright then, next!" Asa says but guy just growls and soon the amount they're asking is on the table. "Enjoy your purchase." The paladin says as he pushes the helmet towards the man before collecting the coins.

A elven priestess approaches the table next and asks, "What do you have for daggers?" Asa vanishes into the tent and after a few minutes, returns with a cloth bundle which they unroll on the table.

The sun elf picks up and examines those daggers sporting runes of spell cast boosting. "How much for the one sporting the antler guard dagger?" The priestess asks.

"Three gold, fifty silver, and nine copper." He replies, it was cheap because the edge needs to be sharpened. "The one with the mink sheath is six gold, seventy silver, and ten copper."

The priestess take a look at the one he mentioned and she counters, "Four gold, thirty silver, and ninety copper." Taking the dagger, Asa rolls up the cloth and they begin to dicker over the price.

He settles for five gold, forty-five silver, and fifty copper. The coins go into the chest that's next to him while Asa calls for the next customer. The next person wanted to sell this mace with a broken handle or at least put it against buying a new one from them, which wasn't that surprising as they could find a wood carver to create a new handle rather cheaply.

They closed up shop mid day in order to have lunch. They split up as they each wanted to do something before returning to re-opening up their 'shop'. Kero finds himself seeking out a herbalist to pick up some dried herbs for a potion he wants to make.

A cluster of young women and girls weaving flower crowns sit about gossiping before the hut. They which to harsh whispers at his approach, he didn't look much like a wizard but that is intentional considering the 'business' is something one would expect from a rogue more then a wizard. For some reason, he feels a slight case of embarrassment and resentment by the way he's being eyed.

Entering into the tent, he finds the herbalist penning something into a rather thick looking book that had been in a fire. He can tell by the burnt marks and he could only guess at what pages had needed to replaced. "You got my money?" The disgruntled gnome asks and he nods.

Taking out a pouch filled with the amount, he tosses it onto the table top, it gently comes to a stop by the book top. "Here's a bonus for your troubles." He adds after catching the package the gnome tossed at him, this other pouch contains about five percent of the original payment.

With their business over, he leaves the tent but before leaving the site, turns and asks, "What are the flower crowns for?" He is rather curious despite himself.

"Oh, for the festival, sir! According to the priests and priestesses, it's to be a fertility festival at that!" One of the younger girls chimes as a reply.

"Oh? I would have thought now would be an odd time to hold such a gathering..." He murmurs with a slight frown. "Thanks." Kero states, nodding before continuing on his way.

He arrives at the tent and with a nod to the neighbors, honest folk who had been making sure nobody tried to steal from the tent. Kero checks his wards for tampering before sitting at the table, taking a book from a small pile. They were just novels and religious scripture, not many people looking to purchase such things but they keep them on hand none the less.

When Asa appears, he puts the book down. A line of adventurers forms once more, most look rather impatient about all of this, likely new arrivals to the refugee camp. It likely didn't help that they couldn't find another place to hawk their loot or to buy replacements.

"Would the first person please approach the table?" Asa asks and so they continue their business.

) o ( = ) o (

**Kari**

The settlement only possesses five family names, each being descended to five brothers. Not that she finds any of their history to be very interesting, mostly what interests her is that they were entrusted to guard something by a gold dragon. _And whatever it is, might just help in finding the dungeon we need to enter to end this game._

Slinking towards the wall while in animal form, she's glad for the family feud that is slowly stirring within the human settlement. With evening coming, most of the locals are busy heading home to have dinner or get dinner prepared. The settlement possess walls about the heads of the five families, these are manned by members of that family while the final walls encircling about the settlement are manned by members of all five of the main families.

Ren trots along the wall that encircles the settlement. Her ears flickering at each and every sound as she sorts through each smell. She's relieved to find her way in still open and quickly slips through, heading for the spot where she left Karren. _I wonder if she finish making more of those arrows..._

Upon seeing Karren up in a tree, she shifts into her hybrid form. "I found the vault." She states to her partner as she moves to climb up the tree.

"You think they have any Seers among them?" Karren asks while watching her climb up. As she gets within reach, the Shifter moves and helps her up the rest of the way onto the branch.

"If they had any, it's likely more geared towards watching their neighbors as they seem to be on the verge of a feuding among themselves." She says as she gets comfortable upon the branch, keeping a hand upon the tree trunk until she has a greater sense of balance upon the branch. "If we do this, we might want to engineer some kind of incident that would distract them while we sneak in and grab our prize."

As she takes something out to eat, they discuss plans to do just that.

) o ( = ) o (

**TK**

"Ah... Why did you give me this?" He finds himself suddenly nervous as he turns to speak with the rather attractive elven priestess. A part of him felt very much out of depth with the very idea of thinking of . . . women in such a fashion and that other part of him was just nervous at the idea of . . . coupling with her.

Instead of answering, the woman pulls him in and they kiss, moving into her tent. Hands begin to move on their own while something primal engages in a very old, ancient even, dance that men and women have engaged in for generations.

) o ( = ) o (

**Patamon**

Asa finds at least five flower wreaths about his head while two hang from his left and another two on his right. He's not sure why these nine had been approached him while he was heading into his tent but it seems to dawn on a certain part of him while that part of him that is merely Patamon says, "Err, did you want to come into the tent?"

As he turns and leads the nine into the tent, he feels somebody slap him on his bum. As he turns around, he is pounced on by the women. As luck would have it, he hadn't been wearing his usual leather armor so it was just some cloth shirt and pants that were turns into rags. He is merely thankful of the fact that Kero had insisted that they put something down on the ground to act as a floor as neither his or Kero's bed would have held up to so much weight of the nine women and himself.

) o ( = ) o (

**Matt**

He pauses to look east and northward, a rather odd sensation kind of blooms within his breast. A kind of knowing envelops, leaving him to wonder just what caused him look off in that direction. With a yawn, he glances over to Wolfclaw, wondering if his partner experienced the same sensation as he had.

Wolfclaw glances his way before getting up and exiting out of the tent. With a sigh, he is sure to grab his weapon before following after. Exiting out, he find the sun has yet to fully raise up. The rest of the party seems to still be fast asleep, well, except for the sentry.

"You know, for a bard, I sure haven't heard any music from ya." Mutters Martin, likely a poke at Wolfclaw through him. He glances over to the rogue before shrugging.

"It never felt to be the time for music." Is his answer to Martin's question. "Although, if you insist, I can play you a song." He adds.

"Well then, why don't you go fetch an instrument and play us a diddy?" Martin says and with a sigh, he heads for his tent, being sure to get dress before grabbing his guitar. Exiting out of the tent, he is sure find a spot to sit comfortably before beginning to sing:

"Sha la la la la la ...  
>Sha la la la la la...<br>Sha la la la la la...

Sha la la la la la ...  
>Sha la la la la la...<br>Sha la la la la la...

yabai morini sasoware koyoi mo showtime(ayakashi NIGHT)  
>chikara makaseni daremo ga abare houdai (yofukashi de FIGHT)<br>tamerai nante fuki tobashite tachi mukaeru kai? Yeah  
><span>Being called by an evil forest, tonight is showtime as well (demon NIGHT)<span>  
><span>If given strength, anyone can rampage as much as they want (staying up late to FIGHT)<span>  
><span>Can you blow away your hesitation and face it? Yeah<span>

kimi wo mamoru (dou natte mou ii)  
>kimi wo mamoru soredake (soredake de ii)<br>namida wo nagasu dakeno mainichi ni bai bai  
><span>I will protect you (no matter what)<span>  
><span>I will protect you only (that's enough for me)<span>  
><span>I say bye bye to everyday life, filled with nothing but tears<span>

Sha la la la la la ...  
>Sha la la la la la...<br>Sha la la la la la...

Sha la la la la la ...  
>Sha la la la la la...<br>Sha la la la la la...

todoketai kotoba nara mune no naka ni aru (naisho no ROMANSU)  
>kiete hoshikunai hito nara me no mae ni iru (fushigi na DISTANSU)<br>darekaga kizutsuku no bakkari mou micha irarenai Yeah  
><span>I have words in my heart I want to send to you (secret ROMANCE)<span>  
><span>In front of me is someone whom I don't want to disappear (mysterious DISTANCE)<span>  
><span>I can't stand to see someone hurt anymore Yeah<span>

I wanna be your knight(tsuyoku naritai)  
>I wanna be your light imayori(imayori motto)<br>itsuka kimi to kawasou hyaku paasento no sumairu  
><span>I wanna be your knight (I want to become strong)<span>  
><span>I wanna be your light more than now (much more than now)<span>  
><span>one day, we'll exchange 100% smiles with each other<span>

furishikiru ame no naka ni koso kono mi wo sarasou  
>nani ga dekiru?<br>nani ga kawaru? imasara  
><span>Let this body be exposed to the endless rain<span>  
><span>What could you do?<span>  
><span>What could change? After so long a time<span>

kimi wo mamoru(dou natte mou ii)  
>kimi wo mamoru soredake(soredake de ii)<br>I will protect you (no matter what)  
><span>I will protect you only (that's enough for me)<span>

kotae ha nai (dokoni mo nai)  
>ikiru shika nai kono sekai (kono sekai zutto)<br>jibun wo semeru dakeno mainichi ni bai bai  
><span>There is no solution (not anywhere)<span>  
><span>We can only live in this world (in this world always)<span>  
><span>I say bye bye to the everyday life blaming me<span>

Sha la la la la la ...  
>Sha la la la la la...<br>Sha la la la la la...

Sha la la la la la ...  
>Sha la la la la la...<br>Sha la la la la la..."

As he finishes, he hears some clapping and turns to find Sayna and the others standing before their respective tents. His face heats up at the positive response to the song. He didn't even want to wonder why he felt something heavy lifted off of his shoulders at seeing Sayna's smiling face.

**To Be Continued!**


	8. Arc One Chapter 8

**I don't own D&D or Digimon.**

**- = o 0 o = -**

**Tai**

Rubbing the back of his neck, he mutely shakes his head at the sight of a cake statue depicting MacArron in the form the god uses when speaking with humans, it's currently resting at the center of the round table. _Or maybe I shouldn't be all that surprised... This temple is dedicated to the god after all._

The feast looks so... so surreal with various fountains of liquids. Desserts surrounds the statue of MacArron with the main course. The most accessible foods take the form of appetizers. He's a little unclear how one goes about reaching the other dishes as the table looks rather solid.

_But then, that's what gives credit to stage magic..._He muses to himself as everyone finally gathers within the same room. As soon as the master of the temple is in place, prayers are offered up in the god's name.

He struggles to keep up with their speed. Mostly, Donaar is the one who does all their prayers without expecting Cro to add his voice to them either. He manages to stop speaking when the rest of them do, even if he wasn't at the part where they stopped.

With that, everyone approaches the table with all of the food. As he samples the food within reach, the table's center begins to float and various sections of the table finally began to become clear cut. These sections then begin to slowly rotate about the center of the table while that center just rotates.

_Dinner and a show, what more could one ask for?_Cro thinks dryly as they continue to work through the first course of dinner. There isn't any conversations but then, they haven't eaten anything since dinner yesterday night.

He didn't need to look about to find his partner, being an Invoker of MacArron, Donaar's place is next to the master of the temple. It's not often that there's an Invoker for the God of Cooking after all, so it's a great honor to cook along side MacArron's Invokers. Of course knowing all of this is one thing, it's another to bare witness to it as he hadn't been able to speak with the Dragonborn all day to plan out their next course of action.

At least he took the time to brew some short time potions to sell at the city about an hour's walking distance from the temple, it's shorter if riding upon of the temple's riding Ox though. Not sure what to make of that development as he's more accustom to using horses as mounts.

Though, what he gleamed from the priests-in-training that origin of this temple using Ox as mounts is due to an early time in the founding of the temple where enemies wanting to take over the temple tried to poison the inhabitants by sending it as a stand in for a delivery of spices they had been expecting. The temple had sent a young priest to check on the progress of the shipment and discovered that the shipment had been held up due to a broken axle. This priest felt that he needed to head back to the temple faster then his legs would take him but the merchant only had a spare Ox and the rest was history.

) o ( = ) o (

**Mimi**

Hitching her pack up, she glances at Oakcalm before turning to look at the forest trail before them. After a week's celebration over the victory over the army laying siege, Harsha finally realized that it's time for Oakcalm and herself to continue on their way. Two days to recover from the week long party and another day to pack, they said their heartfelt farewells just two days ago.

_Hard to believe it's only been two days..._She thinks as they leave the small clearing they made camp at. They hadn't encountered any monsters since leaving the settlement but then, perhaps that's to be expected concerning the large army of Lizardfolks had to eat, preferably meat.

"It's still too quiet for my liking." Oakcalm states as the sun has fully entered into the sky. "How far do you think we need to get before we begin to encounter wildlife?"

"Another day or two." Is her reply as they walk through a board patch of sunlight. A hole in the canopy is likely due to yet another site of where the army had chopped down some trees to create catapults and siege towers.

Remains of wood clippings litter about the old fire pits could be found between some of the tree stumps. Broken branches had likely been set up as weak, make shift buildings, held together viva vine ropes, though now, they look like mats.

Though silence hangs in the air, she didn't see any evidence of something waiting to attack them. Not that she isn't edgy, she just didn't feel threatened is all. As they reach the end of the cleared area, life seemingly returns and the feeling of being watched vanishes.

"Thank the spirits we weren't a threat." She hears Oakcalm murmur softly, almost like a prayer. Harsha glances over at her friend and battle partner with a questioning look but trusts Oakcalm's assessment as she is a shaman and is in connection with the world around them in a way she isn't.

"Then let's press on." She says and they pick up their pace, they had a long way to go after all. _Who knows just what the others have been up to while we were dealing with that siege._

) o ( = ) o (

**Joe**

More and more of the dead kept raising out of the ground, breaking through the layer of ice he had prayed for to make it harder for the necromancer to call forth more servants. Radko knows to go for the neck, cutting the heads clear off the bodies or else the dead would continue to move forward.

_I guess purchasing all those health potions was a good investment after all._Gael muses as he stands upon a pillar of ice, watching the hard press dead path wizard. If the other had been a sorcerer, the battle between them would have been different but as they both have a limited supply of spells, having a goddess on his side is helping to tip the balance in his favor, particularly if he makes creative use of the elements Geshtai prefers to command, namely water which leads to ice.

There are some skeleton minions clawing at the base of his ice pillar but they weren't making any head way in causing it to titter over. Finally, he glimpses the necromancer as the half-dwarf/half-orc(he's not even sure how that happened and didn't really want to know) tries to make use of the skull of some famous wizard to fire some amplified spell at him.

But luck is with him as the necromancer's poor eyesight causes the spell to miss him by eight feet, Radko managed to destroy the guy's glasses before the necromancer began to call forth his dead minions. He quickly fires off a frost ball at the other. It hits and he follows it with a more powerful spell that totally encases the slow moving wizard.

He then works to create a large icicle and fires it, causing the block of ice to shatter, including the trapped wizard. With the necromancer dead, the animating magic fades from the skeletons and few zombies. As he makes it to the ground, the divine elemental magic simply vanishes and he feels his goddess' gaze turn from him.

"Took long enough. You'd think without his glasses you'd have an easier time of it." The huge fighter complains after gulping down a potion.

"It didn't help when he call forth those skeletons, I had to dodge them and keep an eye on him." He states in his defense. "Besides, why would people keep turning this place into a battle field? Just look how many he managed to animate!" Waving his hand at the piles of bones and the few fleshy bodies.

"Might be a traditional way to settle some argument between two arguing clans or tribes instead of going to all out war with each other." Radko points out and he sighs.

"Then the least they could do is give them a proper burial. He wouldn't have called them so easily if they had received some measure of funeral rites." He argues but then just sighs.

Moving, he begins to collect bones from one of the piles. "Help me please. We might as well give them commit them in Geshtai's name to the after life." He says to his partner and friend.

"Only you would worry about such things after a battle instead of resting from a tough battle." The Goliath mutters but does join him in collecting bones from the pile.

) o ( = ) o (

**Matt**

They all wore grim expression on their face at the sight of the bodies of some adventurers. According to Wolfclaw, they've been dead since last night. _About twenty feet from the entrance of the dungeon. So close and yet, they never reached their goal._

Glancing up, the sun is slowly sinking away. He finds it hard to believe that the day went by so quickly. _Was it really just this morn that I sung that song?_G'roth wonders to himself while looking to the leader of the party, Tavain, an elf ranger who reminds him too much of himself that it's unsettling.

Martin and Sayna stands with Amitae, half-elf fighter, half sister to Tavain. Wolfclaw stands to his right at the rear, not that far from the remains of three adventures and their mounts. He can only hope that none of the three that had died were friends of his but then, it's been a fairly long time since they started this 'game' that he kind of forgot what characters the others had made as he had been more then a little busy worrying about survival.

_I am fairly confident that none of them picked dwarf as a race; at least I think so._He muses as he studies the three bodies once more. The other two were humans and that's what causes him some concern but again, doubts that any of the others picked dwarf for their partners' races.

"We should give them a funeral." He finds himself saying out loud. "It's the least they deserve as fellow adventurers." G'roth defends when the others look at him.

"I have to agree." Amitae pipes in. "It's not as though it matters when we enter into the dungeon and preforming burial rites for these three can help center ourselves."

The tension seems to break apart as Tavain nods. "Fine." Is all the ranger states and moves off to brood, although surprisingly Amitae doesn't go to stand by her brooding half-brother but to nudge Martin to help her. Wolfclaw moves to follow, the three will likely dig the graves, leaving him to help Sayna prepare the bodies.

"Here, let me." He says as the cleric moves to turn the large portion of a body onto its back. He has to flip the head on its own as it has become detached from the neck. A hole in the front shows that one of the undead had kept gnawing at the skull until order to stop.

It takes time to locate which bits belong with which body. They find tent canvases in the dead's belongings. Using a knife, they cut three sheets to wrap the bodies in, more to keep all the bits together then anything. The dwarf didn't need as much as the humans, being smaller in statue.

Standing back, he watches as Sayna murmurs prayers and pours some water from her water skin over each of the three heads. He glances away, not very comfortable with funeral rites. By the time the others come back from having dug those graves, Sayna had placed a few herbs symbolizing death, peace, and the spirit.

He moves and helps carry one of the bodies. As they place the bodies into the freshly dug graves, they move to the side and look down at the three. Moments pass and he realizes that somebody should say a few words before they start piling on the dirt.

As nobody volunteers, he coughs a bit and begin to speak, "We know not who you three were but know that we shall do our best to kill the one who had cause you three to die before your time. We hope you will rest knowing that your killer shall soon be sent on his way to where he belongs, in the tender hands of devils and the damned."

"Amen to that." Martin says and the others nod. He smiles ever so slightly before joining the others in putting dirt on top of the wrapped bodies. Once done, they head off to get cleaned up and to get supper ready, G'roth pauses in collecting some wood to watch the ranger approach the graves but quickly returns to his task, hoping that Tavain will feel better after lamenting to the dead.

**To Be Continued!**


	9. Arc One Chapter 9

**I don't own D&D or Digimon.**

**- = o 0 o = -**

**Sora**

The mirror shows so many visions of her friends, each having their own adventures and never really encountering each other. Next to her, Benio also gazes at the fleeting glimpses. They watch as G'roth and Wolfclaw become permanent fixtures within the party they met with during an attack by raised members of a city, to the leader becoming so consumed with vengeance, and to the closeness developing between Sayna and G'roth.

Flickering images of Yair and Orn dungeon crawls shows them fighting along side different people. They catch a few lingering glimpses of peace, with the two often just sitting next to each other, enjoying each other's company and that of their current crew. Neither develop any lasting relationships with those they sometimes ended up in bed with due to being drunk or under magical charms/enchantments.

The images of Gael and Radko seem to be seen through lens touched with water or frost. Much like the images of Cro and Donaar seem to sport the touch of steam or heat while with Harsha and Oakcalm seem to be viewed from a lens that enhances color. Each of these three pairs sport selection of images of not just battle but times of interaction with powerful forces that grant them the barest touch of their power, bit it from Sprits to their Deity.

There are a few images of the youngest two, although each seems to be of rather different from each other. With Ren and Karren, it seems to be of interactions with tribes and packs of werebeasts while with Kero and Asa, it's Kero the Elf or Hiss the Lizardfolk accompanying Asa throughout proper cities, some monstrous, a few truly breath taking, and to the more common ones created by the more common races. While Ren and Karren were often shown being stealthy and stealing from folks, so they watch Kero/Hiss and Asa acting as merchants, selling gear and items they found during their own adventures or that they repaired personally or by paying someone to repair it professionally.

_"They seem to be having an interesting time, don't they?"_ Benio muses softly and Washi nods in agreement. _"It's not the same, watching them having all of the fun."_

_"The images are slowing down, we must be coming to here and now."_ Washi says and sure enough, the flickering chaotic of images have died down and shows seven groups in different locations. _"Three years since we began..."_

Benio nods while saying, _"A whole year of torture for us before we finally died and a year of traveling this plane until we finally used the mirror."_Washi closes her eyes, she feels responsible for what happened to them, after all, she had been the one to pick their races along with classes.

_"Hm, looks like there's going to be a run in between two parties."_Benio muses and she opens her eyes, gazing down at the mirror. A chuckle erupts as the two teams getting within sight of each other.

) o ( = ) o (

**Izzy**

_Isn't that? But it's a... Could they be?_Were just some of the thoughts going on within Yair's mind at the sight of a certain symbol upon this stall banner.

"Yair, isn't that the crest of Hope?" Orn asks him in a soft tone. "What are the odds we'd find them here?" His partner wonders after a few seconds of silence where they are staring up at the banner.

As Yair recovers, he presses through the crowd to find a stall being run by an Elf and a rather pale looking human. "TK?" "Patamon?" Orn and himself blurt out and the two stall merchants glance their way, their puzzled expression shifts into acknowledgement, likely due to seeing their own crest.

"I'll stay here and man the stall." The Elf says and the other blinks before nodding. They move to find an out of the way spot to speak. They end up in a tavern at the bar counter, Yair trying to decide if this is TK or Patamon, although he is leaning to the blond Elf being TK but is waiting for confirmation.

"Ah, you are...?" Orn inquires after they put in an order of drinks. The man hums a bit before replying to the question.

"Asa, also known as Patamon. You should know who Kero is." Asa answers before nodding at them, indicating that it's their turn to introduce themselves.

"Yair, also known as Izzy and this is Orn." The wizard states while the Genasi holds up a hand, waving it slightly before lowering it once more. "So, merchants?"

"It started out selling gear, items, and weapons we loot to adventurers for used gear and coin. We've traveled to some exotic places and have made a lot of money doing so. It helps that we can slip into any setting." Asa explains.

"Haven't done any dungeon crawling?" Orn asks once their drinks have arrived. He is having a hard time imagining an Elf being able to slip into some of those dark and evil camps and cities. _A blond elf, that would pretty much cause him to stand out._Were his thoughts on the matter as Asa takes a sip from his mug.

"It's hard to do it without extra hands. Mostly we do mercenary work along with raiding bad guys supply lines." Asa says before adding, "Yea, I know it sounds bad but you have to understand that those serving in said places always take some off the top so our thief of goods aren't that noticeable."

"Hard to imagine that with an elf, you'd get away with it." Yair states with a head shake. Asa blinks a few times before laughing.

"He's a Lythari." Asa states as though it explains everything and in its own way, it does. "So, what have you guys been doing since we last met?" The rather pale man inquires in turn.

"Dungeon crawling and visiting various libraries." Yair explains while he swirls the contents of his mug. He hadn't expected to run into team Hope, team likely Friendship, maybe Sincerity or even Courage, yes, Hope not really. _Have TK and I ever interacted much outside of the group activities?_

"Ah, well, have you meet up with any of the others then?" Asa asks curiously after a few minutes of silence in which he did take a few sips of his drink. Orn and himself glances over at each other before either of them replies.

"No we haven't and since you asked that, neither have you guys." Orn answers and Asa just nods in agreement with that statement. "It came as a bit of a surprise to see your crest on that stall banner."

"Well, I guess the odds of us meeting weren't that long given as both of our groups seek out cities." Asa muses thoughtfully. "So, you just arrived or what?" The man asks.

"Just looking for some food supplies before we visit the city's libraries." He answers. "How long have you two been here?" Yair asks in turn.

"About two weeks. We'll be leaving after the festival which starts in two days." Asa answers. "I think we'll be heading to the northeast coast, there's been an increase in piracy. Might get hired on as guards or slip into the pirates' camps."

They had heard about that but as there weren't any old keeps or temples about that area, they were planning to head south towards the Crimson Cliff Castle, rumors have it that some cult has been making inroads into ascending out of this plane of existence. "Well, good luck with that, although I can't help but wonder just how you will be able to slip into those pirate's good graces given that Kero is an Elf." He states with a slight shaking of his head.

"We have managed it before and will likely managed it again. Also, you might want to pick out a gift if you visit the Wisdom Center of All Thing Light, and I kid you not, that is the name of the library that was created after some cult set fire to the previous libraries." Asa goes on to explain, "They believed that the written word is a blasphemous act as it give voice to fiends and demons. Of course, since the cult viewed any kind of magic user as evil, including Clerics with the exemption of Invokers and Paladins as they are direct channels to the might of the Gods."

He couldn't help but feel dumbfounded upon hearing this information. "As such, to gain entry into the new library, you have to be prepared to hand over a book of any kind, sheet of music, or even a painting." Yair fixates Asa with a look of disbelief. "They typically send out a weekly list of books and music they prefer to be gifted to the library to all of the book stores and vendors."

_I wonder if there's any place with a magical printer around here..._ He wonders to himself, although the few times he's inquired about such a thing, everyone gave him the strangest looks. _Perhaps I should just create one myself and become rich on the profits of owning such a unique device?_Yair mentally adds, although that would take time out of their dungeon diving but it would mean he would have one when he really wanted to copy something in a complete way and not by making notes in one of his blank books.

"I don't suppose you ever came across for plans for a copier?" He asks, not really thinking they had. _But a guy can hope right?_

"Hm, closest we've come across are this magical ink pens. You put the ink bottle on the page you want copied and the pen will begin writing upon the blank page." Asa states and he blinks, but it seems that there was a way to copy something without doing it yourself.

"How many of these do you own?" Yair asks after a few seconds. _They didn't run out of them, have they?_

"Well, we donated them to various temples and shrines if not to city libraries. Although, if you want a few of them, Kero knows the enchantment, unless you want the spell?" Asa asks, glancing between them.

"Kero's a wizard?" He asks rather stunned as Kero hadn't been dressing as one. "And how much for a copy of the spell?" _Why not just make as many I need? Although, I guess I could take one apart to puzzle out the spell..._

"Let's see... I do have a price list on me..." Asa murmurs while he checks his pockets only to find it in one of his inner pockets of his leather vest. "It is priced at thirty gold and twenty-five silver."

"That's kind of reasonable." Yair admits and Asa replies, "Well, not much of a market for the spell or for items. Seems that most magic users prefer to write things out in their own hand."

He did think about it before nodding, they finish their drinks and leave the coins under the empty mugs before leaving the tavern. As Asa slips behind the stall, they wait for Kero to finish with a customer before informing him about the sale. Kero then ducks behind this curtain and comes out with a rolled parchment that the spell has been written on.

He digs through his purse for the correct amount while Orn holds onto the spell. "Here you go." Yair says, dropping them on Kero's out stretched hand.

"Pleasure doing business with you." The elf says with a smile and he nods. "Enjoy your time in the city and you should be able to find us here."

"Until after the festival." Yair states and Kero nods in agreement with. He takes the spell from Orn as they are walking away from the stall.

Once about a block away, he unrolls the parchment and reads the writing upon the scroll. Yair nods a bit at some of the ingredients and the preparations needed for both the ink bottle and the pen. "We'll be needing to visit a glass merchant and a blacksmith." The spell ingredients are rather common to find and should be the cheapest part of their new additions of a shopping list.

) o ( = ) o (

**Joe**

He stares at the icon of the crest of Knowledge with a thoughtful look upon his face. _Looks like Izzy and Tentomon visited this dungeon before us. It's hard to tell how long ago they've been here though._Gael muses to himself before finally moving away from the wall upon which sports the crest engraved upon it.

"Are we going to add ours under their crest?" Radko asks him as he comes to sit by the cooking fire. The cleric gets a thoughtful look upon his face before answering his partner's question.

"I guess we should. Did you want to the honors?" He asks his companion as he stirs the stew pot a bit before pulling the ladle up to take a taste of the stew.

Radko gets up after unsheathing a dagger. With a fewer strides then it would take for him, the Goliath makes it to the spot and Gael can hear metal scrap against stone. As his partner does that, he adds a spoonful of spice to add a touch more flavor to the stew.

When Radko comes back, he is once more sampling the stew, finding it done, carefully swings the cooking arm away from the fire. His partner holds out a bowl once the stew pot is no longer in the fire and using the ladle, he add stew to the bowl. As the bowl fills up, Radko moves that bowl down and brings up the other one for him to fill, which he does.

Putting the ladle back into to the pot and swinging the arm holding the stew pot so it hangs a bit closer to the fire, he picks up the second bowl and using a knife, begins to pull out some of the stuff that made up the stew and blows on it for a few seconds before taking a bite out of it.

As the temperature of the liquid cools, he begins to drink some of it. The warmth spreads throughout his midsection and up into his ribs. It's a nice feeling given the weather, which has been rather gloomy and wet. Radko gets up to serve himself a second bowl while he turns to look at the tower they are about to enter into in search of adventure and loot.

"You sure you have a good feeling about this place?" Radko asks him, it's a question he had been expecting given their discovery of the crest of Knowledge. "Wouldn't Izzy and Tentomon have found it if they've already explored this place?"

"Well, I'm not certain that the item we need to end the game is in there but something is in there that might help us. I can't explain it but I really have a good feeling about this tower." Gael admits to his partner, he glances up at the tower's other floors.

"You think maybe we should have recruited some more people before coming here?" His partner asks, not for the first time nor the second, more like the fifth. he just shakes his head, saying, "No, we'll get to it with just the two of us. It's not up more like, slightly down and from what we have heard, not to many people have tried going down, just up so it's likely Izzy and Tentomon went up."

"Well, whatever, just as long as we don't have to encounter more of those metal golems." Radko states and he glances over to the remains of said metal beings, which he thinks might be Warforge. "Might find some here when we get out." He hazards a reply before going back to focusing on his stew.

**To Be Continued!**


	10. Arc One Chapter 10

**I don't own D&D or Digimon.**

**- = o 0 o = -**

**Kari**

They arrived at the city market, they were here to rob the local, supposedly secure library. As Karren moves to her left, Ren walks along her right, taking a gander at the various items being sold. As she gets close to a tavern, she comes to a halt at a certain stall banner.

She does her best to weave about and watches as a pair of clients leave, one of which is a Genasi. The elf, Kero, if she recalls TK's character's name correctly, returns to standing behind the stall. She takes a few second to study the cursed elf and had to admit, he was dashingly beautiful and wonders what his Lizardfolk form looks like before turning her attention to Patamon err... Asa.

She sighs, it seems that the pair were a matching set of good looking males. Ren pulls her hood a bit more up to cover her features before approaching the stall to take a look at their wares. She doesn't know if she is surprised to find them selling adventuring gear or bemused. _Well, I guess I can't scuff at their business. Not when Karren and myself have been going around robbing every rural settlement and army company we come across._

"Are you looking for anything particular?" She glances up from admiring a magic rod made out of bronze sporting amber beads about the handle while the tip is a citrine or yellow topaz triangle gemstone. Ren finds herself being addressed by Kero himself.

"I don't suppose you have any spell scrolls for sale?" She takes a moment to cast a spell to alter her voice before speaking. Then she mentally rolls her eyes at bothering to alter her voice as she sounds different then when she was just Kari.

"Yes we do. We also sell spells if you are looking to add something more permanent to your castings." Kero informs her and she frowns, wondering how he could tell that she's a practicer of magic.

"What kind of spells are we talking about?" She asks, deciding not to ask the obvious question of 'how did you know'. Ren notices a slight smile grace those beautiful features upon her current rival's face.

"We carry the usual, destructive, defensive, enchanting, and aid spells. A number of which come from some of the most infamous cities to the most glorious ones." Kero states in answer in a slightly cheerful tone. "Here's a price list."

She takes the offered scroll and unrolls it to find at a thousand spells, including not only their name and price tag but language written in, location of where it was purchased, and summary of effects. It gave her a better understanding of where team Hope have traveled in the three years as well. Ren bites her lower lip as she considers which of them she could afford at this particular moment.

"Just mark what you want with a pencil if you don't want to verbalize what you want out loud." Kero states calmly and she nods, rather relieved by that. She takes out a lead filled stick and marks the spells she feels will aid in their future en-devours.

She rolls it up and hands it to Kero. As she puts her 'pencil' back into her pocket, she pulls out her money purse and waits for Kero to return as he had vanished among the stacks before unrolling the sheet. This one purchase will lighten her purse a great deal but she is confident that they were worth it.

Kero returns with a linen bag crammed with tightly rolled spell scrolls. She counts out her coins, placing them on the counter and then taking the bag. "Pleasure doing business with you. We will be here throughout the festival if you wish to come back for more."

She nods and shouldering the strap, she walks on, rather eager to begin memorizing her new purchases and adding them into her spell note books.

) o ( = ) o (

**Tai**

Cro can't help but pant while doing his level best to keep his blade held before him. His current foes are mounted upon dire hyenas and welding spears. Masks made from steel molded in the shape of skulls covered these gnomes' faces. He had vaguely wondered why the gnomes were trying to hide their identity but in the end, didn't care.

One of the muzzled hyena tossed their head and attempted to rush forward towards him but the rider pulls sharply upon the reigns using the one hand. He did wonder if these mounts were recently trained or just flat out didn't belong to this company of gnomes. He had time to ponder such as it seems that they were playing the waiting game, a game that involved seeing who's back up arrives first his or theirs'.

This is only the second level of this particular dungeon but also the first time they came upon resistance. They had found evidence that Gnolls and their slaves had been camping among the upper levels of this dungeon keep but they didn't encounter any Gnolls so they assumed that true to their nomadic nature, they had moved on. _Now its a question of did they really leave or if these gnomes killed them._

Suddenly the hyenas began to buck, some rolling to get their riders off. With that, he charged forward and manages to at least slice at the neck of one of the riders before the others did their best to poke him with their spears. The riders get off their bucking mounts and the hyenas flee the cold room.

He does his best to hurry the nearest gnome while evading the counterattacks with those spears. As a group of gnome archers appear, the gnomes suddenly grip their midsection and he sighs as he has seen this happen before. He manages to land a beheading blow when the one he had been attack takes off the helmet to throw up.

With even the archers begin effected by this spell, he manages to kill another two when Donaar finally enters into the room. The reminder of the gnomes fall to their combined onslaught, with Donaar using a short sword to attack. Cro rubs his nose at the smell. "I hate it when you use that spell."

"If it works, it works." Is his partner's reply, to which he rolls his eyes. They do their best to avoid the pools of vomit to begin looting the bodies. As they just finish looting the archer's bodies, the next wave of gnomes arrive wearing plated armor and welding a mace in one hand and a long sword in the other.

"Oh joy, trained attack rats in armor." Cro can't help but remark in a very dry tone. Donaar snorts as the first line of five armored gnomes attempt to charge them as quickly as they could only for the plated armor to restrict their speed.

He manages to pull out a cookie from his pouch and eat it before any of the gnomes reach him. He feels the bruises he received from previous gnome encounters stop aching as much. Donaar seemed content to wait for them to come in close before doing anything, be it attacking viva divine spells to using those throwing knives he knows the Dragonborn has on his person.

The gnomes were, unsurprisingly, hard to kill but they also seem unfamiliar in fighting in that armor so their attacks weren't accurate and if they didn't fall short they hit them in their respective armor. His sword just continued to hit the plated armor, although a few blows to the head did seem to cause them to be dazed. He would have cast spells but he didn't have much in the way of energy to do so as he spent himself during the first three waves and this being the sixth wave that he has encountered.

As the last of the ten plated gnomes fall before their blades and magic, he scowls but digs around for a few potions. With each one he downs, he feels refreshed and rested. He would have preferred to sit down and eat the snacks that Donaar made for him but they took time, time they likely don't have.

As he was about to get up, somebody managed to stick a dagger into his back. Donaar bellows, it seems to cause daze among the wave of rogues. He manages to spear the one who got him in the back but that's all as all four rogues recover from the thunderous effect of his partner's voice.

Cro couldn't find it within himself to be surprised by the fact that he had been stabbed with a blade coated in poison and is plain glad when Donaar cures him and heals the wound. "That make seven."

"Yea, it does. Damn it, just how many of these guys are there in this dungeon if they can afford to lose this many just defending this level?" He wonders as he gets up off the floor.

"Perhaps we should hurry it up? We might be on the verge of ruining something for somebody and that's why they have been sending so many after us." Donaar suggests.

With a groan, he just nods. They didn't bother to loot the bodies, trusting that they will still be untouched when they come this way again, well, relatively untouched as it is likely that rodents will arrive to begin to consume the flesh of the dead gnomes. He hopes that they leave the metal and magical stuff alone given how much flesh there is for them to fight over.

- ) T ( -

Cro finds it hard to see his opponent as he stands guard over Donaar's fallen form. No matter how many times he has swiped the blood from his eyes, the jagged cut continues to ooze blood. Parts of his armor seem to have melted, thus parts of him are unprotected and are easy targets for attacks.

The half-fiend, half-gnome snickers or giggles every so often before flat out laughing in perverted pleasure concerning his injuries or the state of Donaar. _At least I have a general idea of when she'll attack and from what general direction._ He mentally admits to himself while the stone sword in his hand continues to feel unresponsive. His dear great sword had been damaged beyond repair and Donaar had managed to summon this sword before falling to the ground.

_This is one of the worst fights we've been in during these last few years! This would be over faster if this sword had an edge!_ He mentally rants to the universe at large. Heck, he didn't care if this fiend blooded female gnome hears his thoughts.

In the end, he only wanted to protect his partner, he wasn't going to allow this witch to harm Donaar, not unless its over his dead body and even then he'd do his best to distract her as a ghost. _MacArron, please protect your invoker, Donaar Godspeaker._ He prays to the god of his best friend, battle partner, and brother of his heart.

Suddenly the witch of a half gnome hisses and a warmth seems to come from the stone sword. It felt lighter and he hears a voice declare in thunderous tones, **"Attack, Cro Runeskin! I command thee!"**

"Can't argue with that." Cro states and charges forth, trusting that he'll slice her in two. As he swings the sword horizontally, he feels something match it. He summons as much power he can while straining against whatever last ditch defense the witch erected against this blow.

He closes his eyes, the light has gotten rather bright. The witch screams and curses in a fiendish tongue and finally the defense crumbles away, allowing his blade to hit. He hears something go splat to his far left while he drops down to his knees, his strength spent.

"Cro? CRO!" He hears Donaar shout as he blacks out. _F'eh, guess my injuries were worst then I expected._ He thinks as he is welcome into the blackness of unconsciousness.

) o ( = ) o (

**Mimi**

She watches as the stars twinkle above their camp. Tomorrow they will be charging into battle with the half-fiend, half-gnome fiend pact warlock held up in this dungeon keep. With their horses exhausted, they couldn't push on and so tensions are running rather high at this particular moment.

Harsha had moved to sit where their mounts are resting. They all know that this warlock planned to do and know that her 'followers' were suffering for yet another night under the enscrollment that the fiend pact warlock placed upon them. Her sympathies go out to them along with her prays but for tonight, there was nothing to do beyond resting and preparing for the up coming battle.

As she begins to pick out star clusters, she feels something nudging her in the back. Turning her head, her expression softens at her gray dappled mare. She strokes the muzzle of her dear, sweet tempered mare whom name is Moondust.

Getting up, she moves and begins to scratch Moondust's neck, particularly around the black and white mane. She murmurs softly in Elvish and Moondust grunts as if in reply. With one hand, she finds an apple in her pouch and with a smile, holds it up for the mare.

Moondust sniffs at the apple before biting into it. In a few minutes, the mare is done with the apple. She pats Moondust upon the neck and then heads back to the campfire. The others seem to be playing some version of poker or some kind of card game, she is sure that the part of her that is Harsha knows the game but she doesn't particularly care.

Oakcalm had gone out to commune with the local spirits and will likely return come morning. _By the gods of all that is good and just, please allow us to put an end to this witch._ She prays before opening a book of poems and reading it until its time for them to turn in.

**To Be Continued!**


End file.
